Here comes Trouble!
by Mistybow
Summary: After having an accident, five friends have discovered that they are now different from before the accident. Having gained new skills they discover that one of their friends has died from the same thing happening to them. Why didn't they die, after all the same thing did happen to them. What do the Avengers have to do with this? Follow their story as they try to uncover the mystery
1. Chapter 1

If it's raining in New York, then it becomes absolute chaos and I should know. Being an assistant to the head of a fashion company means that I have to be prepared for anything, rain or shine. But right now it was more like hailing rather than raining, the droplets of freezing cold hit my cheeks like thousands of mosquitos trying to bite me as I ran to the building that held my devil of a boss.

I don't even know how I got this position; I'm not in any way interested in the line of fashion. I probably wore the worst kind of clothes there, everyone gives me dirty looks and I just smile and wave because I really don't care how I look. It was mainly Nara's idea of a dream job, not mine. By the way, Nara is a friend of mine and a close one at that.

So anyway, here I am running through the streets of a drenched New York to get a hot cup of coffee back to my boss before it cools anywhere below thirty two and twenty seven degrees, anywhere lower and I'm out of the job. For what? For a job that I really don't like, for a person that should learn to get up of his butt and get his own coffee. Yes, exactly, because I am a push over.

I reach the big, grand doors and push my way through into the warmth of the lobby, which was bustling with soaking coats and dripping hair. I took two steps in, that's it, and someone ploughed into me knocking my coffee out of my hand and spilling it all over the floor. I had it nice and hot, perfect, then someone just had to come and ruin that as well. The whole room went quiet to see my reaction; it would be like in school after someone spilt juice all over you then all of the popular people would come just to see your reaction. Exactly like that, the pressure of so many eyes on you belonging to such a higher class than you are.

I did the first thing that came to mind, I walked out. Back out into the rain, I promised myself I would call my boss and tell him I quit. But then again, the news probably would have reached him by then that I had quit anyway. I shoved my hands into my pockets and made my way towards the public parking where my car should be waiting for me. Unless it had been stolen, then that would put the cherry on top of this day.

I always thought that the day I would be free of that job would be the happiest day of my life, but now I just had the thought of how I was going to get any more money without a job. I tried to distract myself from my thought by looking at the lights of the city that never slept. For some reason, it always comforted me to see a light on in a room on a rainy day. I let the frosty drops fall on my skin, as I looked up to every building to see how many there were.

One, two, three, four in one building, another six in a different one, three in the one next to that made thirteen so far. Soon I was playing a game with myself, getting so engrossed in the game that I had completely forgotten about the job I had just left behind. I even forgotten where I was going and left that to my subconscious to get me to the garage.

Had reached thirty-seven lights altogether when I felt something smooth brush my leg and the blast of a car horn. I came to reality and looked around, I was right in the middle of the road that led people out of the garage and connected back onto the main road. A silver Ferrari 612 Scaglietti was wanting to pull out of the garage but I was standing in the way. The drivers' window wound down and a man poked his head out of the window. I couldn't see his face properly because of the falling rain but I knew he was angry.

"What you are doing in the middle of the road I don't know and frankly don't care but could you get out of my way now?" He spat; I narrowed my eyes and moved to the side to let him through. I kicked a rock onto the road as he wound up his window and started to slowly move off. I picked up another rock in the gutter and held it in my hands, then looked at the sleek design of the car. I smiled to myself as the car began to disappear into the misty weather then before I knew what I was doing; I threw the rock as hard as I could. I heard I clunk and could see it wedged deep in his right tail light.

I gasped and heard a surprised cry come from the driver, then I turned and sprinted into the dark, damp garage. I didn't bother to look back over my shoulder because I knew I wouldn't be able to out run a Ferrari so I kept running whilst trying to search for my car just in case I needed to make a quick get away. Then I found it, my car in all its glory. I would usually wish for something better but right now, I thought it was like getting a Christmas present earlier than I should have.

I jumped into the drivers' seat and pulled my keys out of my pocket, slammed them into the ignition and twisted them. At first the car stalled and that's when I heard the screech of tires, then it rumbled to life. I reversed out then made my way to the exit; I stopped at the booth just inside the garage where I had given the valet service my extra key. I knocked on the window from my seat and someone came out to me.

"What can I do for you?" He asked casually, then his face clicked with recognition. He snapped his fingers and disappeared back inside the booth, there were sounds of a search then they stopped abruptly. He came back out holding my extra key in the palm of his hand. I took in and put it in the cup holder, the man stood back and smiled politely at me.

"Hey, did you know that according to one of the guys on the previous shift that they served Tony Stark? So he must still be in here somewhere, which was basically the reason so many girls were here this morning." He said, he was continuing on but I wasn't listening, I might have just hit Tony Stark's car. When he stopped talking, I have him a curt nod and drove out into the street. Then I heard the familiar screech of tires, I glanced in the rear view mirrors and I saw him. Just sitting in mouth of the garage exit.

It was lucky that it was raining today because the traffic wasn't so full on meaning that I could just slip around car so that I could put as much distance as I could between the obviously furious billionaire and me. I checked in the rear view mirror again, to see him pull out in my direction and speeding towards me. I panicked and turned down a back street, then sped down it to an opening back into the main city road.

I rejoined the crowd and looked down the back street to see the Ferrari pass straight by it. I feeling of hope filled me before my logical side kicked in and killed the moment, what if there was a back street up ahead that would lead him right to me? I knew I could be stupid sometimes but this was very low for me. Luckily I knew exactly the place to go to escape from my chaser. I just needed to get back onto the previous road. The next back street I saw, I prepare to turn down just to see the Ferrari come roaring out of it. It was taking any way it could to get in front of the crowd and that's when I realised it must think I'm still in front of it.

I took a deep breath and made the turn, taking my time then came back out into the open of the busier street. I just had to make it to the outskirts to get to my friends apartment, after all I couldn't go to mine since that's the first place they would look. I went along with the crowd at their own pace, listening for the screech of tires to indicate that he had found me again but there was nothing. The rain was steadily getting heavier and distant claps of thunder could be heard. Even the occasional flash of sheet lightning could be seen but nothing too drastic.

When I had finally reached the building of my friends' apartment, the thunder had become louder and the sheet lightning would now come as cracks across the sky instead of the innocent sheets it had before. I parked my car around the back and ran to the back door. I swung it open, jumped inside the lobby then closed the door behind me. I walked up to the desk and the lady behind it looked up from the book she was reading.

"Yes, dear?" She asked, I showed her the spare key my friend, Grace, gave to me.

"I'm Grace's friend, would you mind if I go to her apartment?" I asked her politely, she shook her head and motioned with her hand to the stairs that lead to her floor. I smiled at her and begun to the stairs when someone behind me sneezed, I looked over my shoulder to see who it was but the only other person there was the lady behind the desk. She scratched her nose and smiled sheepishly, the sneeze didn't sound like it was hers but then again I had never heard her sneeze before. So I just shrugged and continued to the stairs.

Grace lived on the ninth floor, quite a climb but nothing too bad. I was surprised that every time I passed a floor that there would be silence, usually it would be at least a little bit noisy at a bearable level but this was like I was walked through a graveyard. I reached the ninth floor and walked down the corridor to Grace's room.

I put the key into the lock and opened it; once I was inside I locked the door behind me and went to the living room. I sat down on one of the couches and watched the city from the massive window in front of me. I was watching the rain fall on a puddle on a neighbouring roof when I spied something strange. A reflection, and from my angle I could see the person quite clearly. She was hiding behind the chimneys from the other apartments across from us.

I got up and moved to the spare room in the apartment, I opened the chest of drawers and started scrounging around for my binoculars. Once I had my hands on them, I tugged them free and shut the drawer. I stayed in the room and hid behind the strip of wall that could hide me and allow me to peek out the person. I slowly moved myself so that I could see then brought my binoculars into focus on the young lady's reflection.

She was dressed in all black and her red hair was plastered to her head, she had a whole heap of gadgets on her belt and she held something that looked like my binoculars in her hands. I lowered my binoculars and pushed myself up against the wall. I reached into my pocket for my mobile phone; I had to warn my friends.


	2. Chapter 2

"Rose, what a surprise!" It was Marlo, the first one to pick up in my five-way call. I could understand why she was surprised since my old boss demanded attention practically all day. I had almost completely lost contact with my friends; this was the first time in two months that I had talked to them.

"Hey, Rosie cheeks! How you doing?" Next to answer was Lux, best friend since school years and quite frankly, the funniest person I have ever met. I convinced her to study drama as something serious in uni and she took it. Marlo, Lux and I live together in my apartment, although we think we will be moving out soon to go our separate ways.

"Rose, I hate you, I was just in the middle of making a perfect croissant! You ruined it for me!" Third to pick up was Grace, the person's apartment I was currently hiding in. I knew she was in cooking class but this was urgent.

"Rose, mate what are you doing? You're going to make my teacher flip!" Nara whispered into the mouth piece of the phone. I heard a shout in the background and couldn't help but laugh.

"Rossi! How's it going?" Last was Ashley, she called me Rossi on purpose because it annoys me out of my mind. It calmed me to hear my friends again and to know that they were getting on with their lives.

"Guys, I kinda did something that isn't too good…" I trailed off when I remembered the smashed tail light.

"You can't go to Grace's house, okay? Someone is watching me and I don't think you guys should try to help." I finished; I could hear static crackling in the background and a boom of thunder sound outside. Forgetting the watcher, I walked out into the living room to try and get better reception. I couldn't let them not hear this; they needed to know just in case of anything.

"Rose! What… you do…bad girl…can't…you of…people!" Was all I heard from Lux, the reception was horrible in the place. The only place that you could get proper reception was on the roof. But there was a storm raging out there, could I really go out there and think I would be safe? I was being selfish; I would only be out there for a few minutes.

"Yeah…as you… the… when… cakes… and the streamers… with a… explosion…You… never aloud… ever again." I could hear Grace talking about something with explosions and cake but it kept dropping out. That's when I made it final that I had to go out there. I ran to the door and unlocked it, pulled it open and took off to the staircase not even bothering to close the door. I took the stairs two at a time as I listened to a very confusing conversation about all the bad things we had done.

I finally burst out onto the roof; the first thing I felt was the wind. It battered me in the face, thunder pounded in my ears, lightning cracked all around me, and buckets of rain drenched me before I could even get out of the small shelter they had built around entrance to the roof. If it weren't for my long hair, my phone would surely be water logged. I kept my back to the rain and wind; it seemed to be working because the reception picked up straight away.

"… and then you said that you take me to the cake convention but that didn't happen either!" I heard Grace shout into the phone, I think the argument was mainly between Lux and Grace judging by the way everyone was laughing.

"Yeah, well Rose called us to tell us about what bad thing she has finally done. So tell us, Rose." The ball was back in my court, it was now my turn to tell them. Then I saw some movement at the bottom of the stairs leading up here. They had found me again.

"I can't talk to long, but I accidentally threw a rock at someone car and now they're coming for me. That's basically it." I shouted into the phone as I looked over my shoulder into the rain hoping there was somewhere on the roof that I could hide. The chimneys were the only place. Completely metal, so they could radiate heat and keep me warm if need be.

"Whose car did you hit?" Marlo asked, quite shocked still that I had gotten in trouble. I streaked out across the roof and reached the chimneys, I sat down and leaned up against them. A thunder clap above my head made me shake as well as the building, I knew a flash of lightning was coming soon so I would have to be quick.

"I hit Tony Stark's if you must know!" I shouted against the howling of the wind and the splashing of the rain. I peaked through the twisted forest of chimneys to see Tony standing under the shelter, swinging his head from side to side looking for me.

"No way! Are you serious?" Nara spoke up in her whispered voice followed by a chorus of protests from the rest of them.

"Yes! Why else do you think I am hiding? Training for hide and seek? No! I'm hiding from someone who wants to put me in jail!" I screamed into the phone, I saw Tony's head turn in my direction and I ducked slightly.

"Come out, come out where ever you are!" He called into the rain; I narrowed my eyes to keep the rain from dripping into them and tried to take deep breaths.

"What do we do?" Grace asked, obviously distressed by my tone of voice.

"Don't, what ever you do, go to Grace's apartment, okay? They will be there." I answered in a lower voice because Tony now knew that I was out here. I shuddered as a crack of lightning appeared over my head closely followed by an explosion of thunder. The storm was right over me.

Just as Tony stepped out into the rain, there was a second crack of lightning and this time it came at me. It first hit the chimneys, I didn't have enough time to get away from them but I did get a glimpse of it before I got shocked. Everything had an almost bluish tinge around it, then I could feel the energy shoot straight into me. It seemed to stay there for a moment, like it was letting me savour the feeling of so much energy in me. It was amazing! For a second I felt invincible, like I could do anything!

Then I felt it leave me, I didn't know how but it did. Then the pain hit me, like I had been beat to a pulp then thrown in a furnace to burn. I crumpled to the ground behind the chimneys; I could hear surprised screams from the other end of the line before it went dead. My vision started swimming right in front of me and everything sound muffled. I begun aching to a point that even breathing was hard for me. So I could barely even look up when I saw a pair of shoes right in front of me.

Everything around started dimming and I knew I was losing consciousness, the pair of shoes was replaced with a face, Tony's face. With all of the energy I had left, I tried to roll myself over onto my other side. But I some how couldn't, I realise then that I couldn't feeling anything apart from my face. I let my eyes close and unconsciousness take me.

For some reason, floating around in absolute nothingness was surprisingly relaxing but I was confused at why I hadn't lost complete consciousness and died. The shock was enough, and why did my friends scream? I didn't make any noise, and all there was in the background was thunder and a bit of a fizzle from the sound of the lightning hitting the chimney but other than that not a lot.

I begun to regain the feeling in my body and the nothingness gradually got lighter. Soon enough I opened my eyes and looked around the hospital room, light reflected off everything in sight. The crisp sheets I laid on made it difficult to move and my vision was still a little fuzzy but it soon came into focus. My hearing was normal and I could hear the steady beep of the heart monitor signalling that my heart was fine. On either side of me were curtains blocking my view of the people next to me. In front of me was an opening leading out into the massive room and acting as a corridor of sorts.

And who other than Tony Stark himself was there, sitting in a chair in the hallway a few metres from my bed. Standing next to him was a taller, slim woman in a beige blouse and a grey pencil skirt with a handbag slung over her shoulder. I closed my eyes and let my head sink into the horribly stiff pillow, I didn't feel like facing any charges right now. There was no way he was going to let me go with something like this either, if he can find a way to get money out of someone then he will do it.

"_I hate the food here, its like aeroplane food but worse!"_ I heard a familiar voice complain from next to me, it sounded a bit strange because every word echoed but I convinced myself that it must be my brain still waking up. I opened my eyes and looked to where I heard Lux complain but the curtain wall was still blocking my view. I was waiting for a smart comment from a nurse that might have been walking by or even something out of Tony but there was no reaction.

I saw the woman standing next to Tony look over to me; I couldn't act asleep now that she had seen me so I let her stroll over to my bedside. It took Tony a bit longer, like he was being forced into something he didn't really want to do. When he joined the business like woman at my bedside, he didn't make eye contact at all and that was fine with me because I didn't even want him to be here.

"Yes?" I asked politely, trying to seem like I had done nothing wrong. The woman nudged Tony in the ribs, he pretended to be hurt then directed his eyes to me.

"_Why do I have to apologise to her when she was the one that hit my car?" _I heard him mutter but his mouth didn't move. He was just staring at me; nothing had come out of his mouth. Then what did I hear? He opened his mouth to say something but I got in first.

"Look, I don't know why you're here but if its to apologise then don't. I was the one that hit his car." I explained and though my voice was still a little hoarse I got the message across, Tony looked dumbfounded for a second then his expression turned back to his usual smug mask.

"This kid's a smart one, you know. You should listen to her." He added, the woman stood with her arms crossed against her chest looking at Tony then me and back. Tony gave a small nod then started for the exit.

"Sorry about that, I just didn't want us to think that we didn't care about you. I mean you shouldn't be alive right now." The woman said softly to me, and with a final sympathetic look she followed behind Tony for the exit.

"_Hey, where is the cake in this place?" _I heard someone call on my other side, I automatically knew it was Grace because of how she want cake possibly more than oxygen right now. I wanted more than anything for the curtains to open so that I could see my friends. Although I was confused as to why they didn't just get up and walk in, I didn't care I just wanted to see them.

I turned my head over to Grace's side and was about to call for a nurse when I saw the bottom corner of the curtain twitching almost. It was like it was fluttering in a breeze that wasn't there; I pushed myself up a little so I could see it better. I decided since my friends weren't coming for me I might go off into my own land for a little while. I tugged my arm out from beneath the covers and slowly reached out to the shivering corner.

Even though it was too far away for me to touch, I didn't mind. I started moving my hand along with the shivering, almost as if it were in time with music. I then begun making bigger movements with my hand hoping it would follow along, and surprisingly it did. I blocked everything out as I watched the curtain follow my hand, making beautiful patterns in the cotton. I started doing an arrangement of movements, from sharp jabs to soft waves and all the while the curtain matched my every move and made it its own. I pulled out my other hand and started creating a visual symphony, I was the conductor and the curtain was my orchestra.

It would flap wildly then come back to a slight shaking as I commanded it. I had even forgot about my friends that I was so engrossed on this magnificent piece of cloth. I came up with a finale in my head and begun signalling it to the curtain, doing two different things with each of my hands. I threw my hands down to signal the end and jumped out of my skin as the curtain ripped off the railing and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.


	3. Chapter 3

Grace's face was just as shocked as mine to see the crumpled curtain on the ground, and I was shocked out of my mind. I also didn't notice when Tony had come back to get his car keys and watched me rip the curtain from its railing above. The shock only lasted a few seconds, but then I was over come with a whole tidal wave of emotions.

First was relief to see my friend again, next was concern because she was in a hospital bed like me, after that was embarrassment because of what I had just done and finally was comfort because she was here with me. We stared at each other for a moment more before I squeezed myself out of my sheets that kept me practically tied down to the bed so that I was sitting up facing my friend.

I slid myself slowly down so my feet were on the floor; I had to get used to the solidity of my feet on the ground for a few moments. I gripped tightly onto the bed so that I could regain me stability. Once my legs had stopped shaking and I was sure I wasn't going to topple over as soon as I let go of the bed, I steadily edged my fingers off the mattress. When I was fully on my feet, I put my hands out to steady myself and took a small step towards Grace's bed. I felt her smiling at me and heard her words echo in my head. _"You can do it! Almost there, come on!"_

"Excuse me but you can't be out of bed!" A nurse cried from behind another curtain, she didn't echo in my head like most of the others and that's when I realise to woman with Tony didn't echo either. Then again, she did move her mouth and Tony didn't. I took another step, bigger this time towards Grace's bed and felt myself repairing my stride. Strength flowed through me just as my blood did throughout my body. I took the last step to Grace's bedside and sat down beside her.

She started squirming around in her sheets until she was sitting next to me, looking over at my bed like I did with hers. Like me, she slipped her feet onto the floor and gradually moved her fingers away from the bed so that she was standing on her own. She looked back at me and smiled, then turned back to my bed and put her hands out just a little in front of her.

"I wish they made it carpet in here, life would be so much easier!" She complained, I couldn't help but snicker at how she was complaining about one of the smallest things here. She was looking down at her feet and kind of shuffling on the spot like she was trying to decide which foot to put first. Then something started happening; it was like the floor was growing hair. Small tufts of a burgundy-coloured material were rising from the hard floor beneath Grace's feet.

She took a step and just as she put her foot down another spot of burgundy carpet sprung up, cushioning her foot. As her other foot left the ground to make another step, the carpet sunk back into the floor leaving it just as it was. This kept happening until she reached my bed and the last threads of carpet vanished below the concrete of the floor. She knew what had happened; after all she had made it happen. I wasn't sure how but it happened, just like the curtain.

I saw a movement in the corner of my eye; it was Tony leaving and the first time I had actually noticed him. He had seen everything that had just happened. For now, I had to put it out of my mind about what he was going to do. I had to get to my friends, I wanted to get out of here and I assumed that they did too. I walked over to my bed and went around to the other side, the side that was facing Lux's bed. I reached for the curtain then remembered how I opened Grace's curtain.

I pulled my hand back a little so it was about the same length that I had away from Grace's curtain. I thought about moving the curtain again, I remembered that was how the curtain started fluttering in the first place. The curtain started waving in the invisible breeze again but this time a bit stronger, it was coming in larger ripples. I slowly moved my hand upward and the curtain followed. I could see the legs of Lux's bed from underneath then an idea came to me, if I could control the curtain what else could I do with it? I kept raising my hand until I could see Lux from underneath. Then I yanked my hand back like I was pulling the curtain myself.

It broke free but what I hadn't realised was so did the rest of the curtains in the room, every single one of them had come off the railing and had fallen to the floor. I could see everyone in the room staring at me, except for Lux who was smiling like a little child in a lolly store. All the nurses ran out of the room, either in fear or to call in for back up. I ran to Lux's side and helped her up while Grace went to help Marlo. I aided Lux while she stood and tested out her walking. As she walked to my bed and back, she didn't see her arms going towards a glass of water placed on her bedside table. I was about to warn her when the two connected and the glass was knocked off.

I reached out my hand and thought it might be worth a shot to try and think about making the glass stop falling. The glass brushed my finger and continued on it way down, I closed my eyes and thought harder about stopping the fall. There was silence, no shatter of glass, not even the sound of the water hitting the floor. I slowly opened my eyes and couldn't help but widen them when I saw both the glass and the water frozen in mid air. Like time had stopped just for those two objects. I knew why the glass had stopped, but I was confused about the water.

I kept my arm out and slowly turned my eyes to Lux whom had one of her hands clenched into a fist and her eyes fixed intently on the water. She had stopped it; she had stopped the water from falling. Did that mean she could do any object like me or just water? Could _I_ do any object or was I restricted to a select few things? I couldn't think about things like this right now, so I let my mind go of the glass and let it drop the last few centimetres it had to go.

I pulled my arm back in and went to Ashley who was on the far side of the room, she was still asleep. I softly shook her, looking briefly back at the door to check if the nurses were coming back. When I got no response, I tried shaking her harder. I tried tapping her cheeks and tickling the bottom of her feet to get her awake. I was just about ready to give up, I rested my hand on her arm and I noticed something. She was quite cold, on her forehead, her arms, her cheeks, everything was cold. I slowly backed away from her so that I was looking at her from the end of her bed.

She looked pale now that I noticed; she almost blended in with the white sheets. I was shaking my head because I could pretty well tell what was coming. There was the report stuck to the end of her bed, I took the papers out of the slip it was in and gasped. Ashley was dead.

She was gone from about twenty-five hours ago, apparently, but there was something else that caught my eye. They kept mentioning her name and an apocalypse like they were the same things. It wasn't until the last page of the report that I understood, Ashley was a mutant. Mutants are people with special skills, in the report it said the Ashley's mutant name was Apocalypse. She was given it because her skills were that she would give anyone she touched horrible luck and could even cause death if stared into her eyes long enough. She could survive any disease and could pass them on even deadlier than they were meant to be.

We were friends with a dangerous person; she was being hunted down by agencies I had never heard of before. Then I saw something that shook me to my core; the Avengers were after her. They were looking for poor, delicate Ashley, or Apocalypse, or what ever her name was. If she was that dangerous then how come she appeared so normal to us, she looked to be leading the good life.

I was about to go find the others when I felt them looking over my shoulder at the report. I quietly slipped the report back into the slip it came in and turned to face my friends. They were either staring at the body or down at their feet. Then Marlo spoke up.

"What's happened to us?" Everyone had no idea, because they hadn't read their reports. I read Ashley's and knew exactly what had happened.

"You remember when we were on the phone together, right?" I asked them, they all nodded slowly. "Well, I got struck by lightning and I think because we were all on the same call you guys got shocked too." I continued slowly, they all looked like they were getting it. "I saw a show once on TV that had a man that had been struck by lightning, the next day he was a musical genius. There was another where a guy got hit in the head with a baseball and from there on he could remember every second of his life." I added, they were still nodding but I was just glad this was getting through to them.

"But what does that have to do with us?" Asked Nara who had been quiet most of this time.

"The point is that they had something unlocked in their brains when something happened to them. I think we have had a higher power in our brains be unlocked from the shock and since it was on a five way call, it happened to all of us." I finished; everyone exchanged glances with each other. Then a dark look came over Lux's face.

"Why didn't Ashley survive?" She asked, I knew it would come up at some point.

"Ashley was a mutant, born with a part of her brain already unlocked. When she was hit by the lightning, just think of it as an overload, and she didn't make it." I answered, Lux nodded understandingly and looked past my shoulder to our fallen friend. Lux nudged Grace and headed for the door with Grace by her side. Marlo, Nara and I followed them to the door. We stopped frozen when we saw what was beyond.

The nurses had returned, with needles the size of my arm and trolleys full of medical equipment. Marlo pushed to the front and smiled at us, she put her arms out in front of her. She brought them apart like she was going to clap, then kept going until she reached as far as she could stretch them. Grace nudged me, she had her fingers in her ears so I followed and nudged Nara to do the same. Marlo closed her eyes and brought her hands together, a shock wave came blasting out of the clap almost as loud as the thunder I heard the day I was shocked.

The nurses were stunned and that was enough of a signal for us than we needed, Lux streaked out in front and we followed like racehorses on the leaders heels. We wound our way through the corridors; dodging moving carts and beds that came in our. There was a line of beds blocking us with no way around, I looked at my friends to see what they were going to do but too late I was there. I went for the leap and it was like time slowed down for me to look at us. Lux and Nara's heads were just disappearing under the beds as they slid under while Marlo and Grace on either side of me were in mid air with excited expressions on their faces.

Time sped up again and we were sprinting like we had energy to burn for an age, this time Nara took the lead and took us to the stairs. We clambered down the stairs with Nara as our leader taking us to freedom. We kept winding further and further downwards until we thought we were in the basement, but the change in light signified that we were back on ground floor. I jumped into the front and led them as we bolted across the foyer and out the doors into the sunlight of the real world. But I didn't stop there; we kept running across the street, ignoring angry drivers beeping their horns, and all the way until we had made it three block away from the hospital.

We then walked to my apartment, mostly because it was the closest of the apartments and mine probably wouldn't be bugged with microphones. It had started to sprinkle with rain as we trudged into the lobby of my apartment building. Once we were safely inside the comfort of my apartment everyone flopped down onto the couch to rest their legs and let everything sink in. The fact that we might have powers now, that one of our friends is dead, that the Avengers were watching her. Then something clicked inside my brain.

"Hey you know how it said in the report that Ashley was being watched by the Avengers?" I asked the group, they lazily nodded their heads to let me know they were listening.

"Maybe we could try and get some information from them, since we don't really know much about what she is or what she's done." I suggested, Lux turned her body around to face me.

"Alright, so we're just going to skip up to the Avengers tower and ask for the information?" She asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the end. I shook my head at her as Marlo, Grace and Nara started to gain interest in the subject.

"No, they won't let us have something that would probably be classified but who says we have to follow the rules, now?" Nara asked, she was right. We could bend the rules; we do have powers now. We could just break in, get the info and get out, kick a few butts in the mean time but not too much. We smiled at each other as we thought about what this meant for us. Then Lux giggled and said

"Watch out world, here comes trouble!"


	4. Chapter 4

Not much happened for the rest of the afternoon, we just wandered around my apartment, had some dinner then went to bed. Nothing interesting. I was the first to wake up the next morning, which was unusual for me since I slept in most of the time. I got dressed and had breakfast, cleaned myself up and went to the lounge room to do a mental day plan. First thing we had to do was test our powers some more, that reminded me of Nara. She hadn't displayed any signs that she had any powers like the rest of us. Then something hit me, what if she didn't have any? I shook my head at the thought; she was on the same call that triggered everyone else's powers. But maybe the shock wasn't strong enough to unlock that part of her brain like us.

I closed my eyes and tried to think of all the different things it could be, when I heard a rustling I opened my eyes but I was no longer in my apartment. I was on some kind of street, buildings rose around me so that I couldn't see over them. I felt like I was being watched from one of the buildings but I couldn't pick which one. I started running but not of my own accord, my legs were moving all by themselves. I looked down at them to see why this was going on and saw someone else's legs; tan and slim they definitely weren't mine. I couldn't even turn my head to look at my reflection in the passing windows. I was in someone else's body, I blinked a few times to try and get used to the idea but every time I blinked the scene around me got fuzzier.

I don't know how but my vision of the street disappeared with the lounge room of my apartment in its place. I sat there, on the springy lounge, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Everything looked so real that I thought I really was there, my thoughts were interrupted by Lux coming into the lounge room just to move off to the kitchen for breakfast without even so much as a look towards me. I watched the door for her to come back out but gave up when Marlo came strolling out of her room and stumbled into the kitchen. I could hear mumbling from the kitchen, then the sounds of bowls being grabbed out and cereal being poured closely followed by milk.

"Whose gonna wake Rose up today?" Marlo asked Lux between mouth fulls of cereal; a few moments passed before Lux answered.

"I dunno! Make Grace do it!" She exclaimed tiredly, I laughed silently at her loathing tone as she thought about waking me up. I could understand her; I hated being woken up and got really angry when they did.

"Yeah, but Grace did it last time." Marlo giggled, she was probably remembering the last time Grace woke me up. I threw a storm of pillows at her and almost buried her alive. There was a snicker from Lux and Grace emerged from her room closely followed by Nara. The sound of water running and the bowls brushing against each other as they were washed could be heard. Everyone stayed in the kitchen until everyone had eaten and the dishes were washed. Then they all came out to the lounge room and sat down on the couches.

"Grace, we voted that you are going to wake up Rose today." Lux informed the now crestfallen Grace. Marlo nodded in agreement but avoided Grace's eyes. I opened my mouth to say something but Nara cut in.

"Well, maybe I should do it. After all, Grace did it last time." She suggested, I blinked at her and smiled. They still didn't notice me.

"Maybe I should do it this time." I said, Grace jumped at my voice and the others stared at me like I had appeared out of thin air. Then a sense of relief filled the air as they realised that they wouldn't have to risk their lives in waking me up. I sighed and remembered about exploring our powers more.

"Guys we need a place to train if we're going to get that info on Ashley. We need better control over our powers." I said, Marlo and Nara nodded in agreement. Lux was smiling mischievously; I knew how much she loved our new skills would take any opportunity to use them again. Grace gave me a curt nod then Nara spoke.

"I have an idea of where we could go." She said, when we were ready we followed her out of my apartment to an abandoned dock a few blocks from my apartment. Everything was so grey and quiet, the warehouses creaked as the wind blew through them. She soon turned to a warehouse right in the back of the dock; a security guard was outside it. Everyone went stiff with fear but Nara simply strolled up to him and smiled.

"We would like to use this warehouse if you could please?" Nara asked politely, the security guard gave her a quick glance then stared straight ahead as if she wasn't there. Nara waved her hands in front of his face.

"_If he were happier, he would let us in. This guy is wound too tight." _I heard Marlo echo behind me, no one turned around to face her in acknowledgment but me. Like I was the only one that could hear her. I saw her staring at the security guy with focus evident on her face. I glanced back at the security guard to see his eyes go blank, not like before where he was purposefully not looking at us but like he was in another world.

Then a smile crossed his face; a genuinely happy smile and his eyes lost the blank look in them. He gazed at us like he was our friend; he lost his intimidating stance and tilted his head as if to question why we were here. I turned back to Marlo, a sense of realisation around her then I understood. Not only can she create sound waves; she can control people's emotions.

"What can I do for you?" The security guard asked with real kindness in his voice, Nara exchanged surprised looks from Grace and Lux that were on either side of her. Nara was about to speak when Marlo cut in and pushed to the front of the group.

"Hi, we would like to use this warehouse for personal business please?" She inquired, the security guard nodded and stepped away from the door he was guarding.

"Sure, just be careful because we are still moving fish out of here since this dock isn't really used any more. So the dock is free between the hours of six in the morning to four in the afternoon for the next week. But from then on, you're free to come here when you want." He explained, Marlo smiled at him and nodded. The guard returned the smile and with a final wave he walked off. Everyone stood there gaping at Marlo for a minute before we forwarded into the warehouse. We couldn't see a thing and the smell of fish almost choked us. Grace had get out before she vomited and was closely followed by Lux who was cursing her head off.

"This is the hide out? This stinking shed?" Marlo snapped holding her nose so that she sounded funny. I walked outside and knelt down beside Grace who was gasping for air.

"Hey, do you think you could give me a torch?" I asked her, she looked at me and felt for her pockets. I shook my head at her and she caught my message, I wanted to see her make it. She shrugged and closed her eyes, making her breathing come back to normal. She brought her hands out in front of her and started twisting them around. I looked down at her hands to see something coming together, the torch. It was like she was making particles from the air come together, it was the only way I could describe it. Like she was making the particles appear then merge them together to make it. When there was most of the body, I could see it wavering like it was a mirage. Sweat was starting to form on Grace's brow and I felt guilty to ask so much of her when she had barely used her powers.

She took a deep breath and the mirage started wavering even more, the particles begun to split and soon it was no more. Grace opened her eyes and stared at the empty space in front of her. She looked devastated. I put a hand on her shoulder and she gave me a side-glance.

"Maybe try a lighter and a candle, separately though." I suggested, she nodded glumly and closed her eyes again. The reaction was much quicker than the torch, the particles came together much faster and it didn't shake when it was still coming together. Soon enough, a small red lighter sat on the ground in front of me with a candle also coming into existence. I waited until Grace had opened her eyes before I picked them up. She gazed at the objects she had just created, I flicked my thumb down on the lighter and a flame appeared on the top. I lit the wick of the candle and released my thumb from the lighter.

I walked past Marlo and Nara into the warehouse with the small amount of light I had making it easier to see. There were crates stacked in the corners but there was a big space in the middle where we could train. I was just about to put the candle down when I saw the flame doing something strange. It was bending towards me, but when I put it down and stepped away from it I felt stupid for thinking it was bending at me. I knew it wasn't natural since there was no wind blowing it. It was bending towards one of my friends.

It couldn't be Grace since we already knew what we could do and if she could do anything else she would have had an over load like Ashley. Same with Marlo, she had a whole package of powers. That just left Lux and Nara, there was a possibility that it was Lux but why would she control water and fire? Unless if she could control elements… I thought of a way to test it out, an almost bulletproof way that could guarantee who it was.

"Before everyone comes in, I would like just one of you to come towards me." I requested, my friends looked at me from the doorway and shrugged.

"Could Nara please come first?" I asked, she started walking swiftly towards me, I waved for her to slow down and she did as she was told. I watched the flame continue to bend but every time she took a step closer it straightened until Nara was standing in front of me and the flame was perfectly straight. She was the one.

"Try to control the fire." I ordered her; she stared at me as if I was asking her to jump through a flaming hoop. I nodded to her and she turned her eyes to the flame, I back to the doorway just in case she started to get a bit out of control. She took a step back from the candle and started circling it. She rubbed the back of her neck, and stopped so that we could only see the right side of her. She bit her lip and put her hand out over the flame with her palm down, it flickered a bit but then went dead straight.

She started raising her hand up and the flame on the candle came off the wick, it curl into a ball and floated up to the palm of her rising hand. When her hand was over her head, she turned her palm back up so that she was holding the flame. Lux stepped in front of me to get a better view; of course she would want to watch something like this. She tossed the ball up and caught it gingerly in the other hand, she tossed it up again and a smile begun to spread across her face. The third time she tossed it she spread her hand apart and a wall of flame in the air appeared the length her arms went. She held them there as she admired the work she had just done.

She bent her knees a little then spun around on her toes; the flame followed her in a majestic pattern that hung in the air for a moment before it disappeared. Then she begun doing what I was doing with the curtain, making an orchestra out of it. Flames danced around her, sliding down her arms and wrapping around her neck but in no way harming her. The fire started growing, becoming bigger and brighter with every wave of her arm. Then I saw it, she was drawing something. She was drawing something in the air with the flames. Suddenly, a screech filled the air as I realised what it was, it was a phoenix. The magnificent mythical fire bird of legend, Nara had just brought to life. It was flapping its great wings and swinging its head around the room. It was beautiful. Then Nara shouted louder than the roaring of the flames that made up the very being of the bird.

"I am Nara, queen of the flames!"


	5. Chapter 5

She let the flames calm down until they were fully extinguished and the warehouse was dark again. Nara smiled at her new found power and bowed at us. Lux erupted in a series of clapping and screaming fits with a less enthusiastic Grace applauding just behind her. I smiled at the group, we had our team and we were going to be unstoppable. I lit the candle some other ones Grace had been able to make, I put some in the corners and the centre of the room so there was enough light for us to see. I went to one wall and that sent out a signal to the others to do the same.

There wasn't a lot I could use to help myself train, just crates and fish. The candles were out of the question; the crates were wooden so they could catch fire. I looked around for something simple; a pebble should do for now. I sat down about two or so metres away from it, I stared at it but nothing happened. I narrowed my eyes as if threatening the rock but still it didn't move. I turned my head around to examine what the others were doing in turn.

Nara had made a kind of fire snake that was slithering up and down her arms; I shivered at the thought of trying to do that. Grace was sitting cross legged with her back against the wall concentrating on making something, I couldn't properly see what though. Marlo staring at Nara with full focus on her face, it was a bit creepy. Then there was Lux, she had a water bottle by her side and was making the water rise out of it.

I turned my gaze back to the pebble that lay just in front of me, I thought about making it float. Not too far off the ground but just enough to make it obvious. I blocked everything else out and focused solely on the pebble, it begun to shake slightly. Then I felt something, an almost painful sensation tugging at my brain. Like someone was trying to get inside my head just to mess around with it. The pebble increased in its shaking and the pain escalated. Then something from the real world penetrated my focus.

"Hey, Rosie, I think the rock is winning." Lux commented, everything came rushing back to me and I whipped my head in her direction. Before I knew what was happening, the pebble lifted off the ground and went shooting towards Lux. She had barely anytime to react and I assume she didn't even know what was going on. She lifted her hands above her head and a wall of water came up in front of her, it caught the pebble. She brought her hands back down in front of her and brought them together like she was making a ball. The water wall obeyed and embedded the pebble in a transparent casing, although the wall had slowed down the pebble it was still moving.

She opened her hands so that they were facing the pebble and she started spinning, the ball followed her hands with the pebble safely inside. Once she and the ball had reached the wall it was like she gave it a little push and it burst right through the wall out into the dock. We all stared at the hole it the wall as Lux lowered her hands and relaxed. She turned back to me with a shocked expression on her face, it soon turned into a smirk and I returned her look with a smile. She fully turned around to face me and made some more water rise from the water bottle.

I readied myself by standing up in a defensive position. She grinned and made the water in to a ball about the same size as the one that in cased the pebble. She brought it to her hand so it was sitting in her palm, then she brought her arms back and slung it right at me. I did the first thing I thought of and stepped aside but she made it curve so it followed my movement. I looked around me for some kind of protection but it was too late; it hit me in the right arm.

I shook the droplets from my arm; Lux had another one coming for me as soon as I was dry. My eyes looked around for something; I reacted upon the first thing they saw which was the crates. I brought my arms out to the side they were on and made a dragging motion. Sure enough, the crates followed my order to make a barrier in front of me that took the water shots for me. Then the pain I felt before came over me again; the pain became a searing burn in the back of my head. I let the crates drop in front of me but didn't see the on coming ball of water coming for me.

I felt someone beside me, it was Marlo, she dragged me down behind the crates as the water ball went flying past my head. She stood up as Nara came to join us; I peeked over the crates and saw Lux and Grace hiding behind their own fortress of crates. Lux threw another water ball at us, Nara stuck out her hand at her eyes turned to the centre of the ball. She curled her fingers into a claw and the water ball started evaporating. Steam bellowed off it and soon it was no more, Lux was watching this and her eyes widened from behind her barrier. Then something else was launched from behind their wall, something small and kind of pastel coloured. As the object got closer I realised what it was, it was a cupcake. It splattered onto the crate wall of our battlements and I gasped.

Grace must have made it; she might be getting the hang of her powers now. I stood up next to Nara and dodged another cupcake that flew right past my eye. Marlo stood up on Nara's other side and smiled at us. A water bomb was coming at us, we leaped out from behind our crate wall and started running towards it. Nara held out her hand and the bomb begun to fizz, so it was just a puff of steam like the last one. Marlo stopped in her tracks as another water bomb came for her. Nara stopped and brought a wall of fire up in front of her friend.

The water bomb was caught by the flames as well as a cupcake that was now a pile of ashes on the ground. Nara let the flame die down but Marlo had a surprise of her own, she brought her hand together just like in the hospital and a massive shock wave was unleashed. It caught up to me and for a split second I was running side by side with it; it swirled past me to bash into the wall of crates. It gave me a clear shot and I took it, I leaped through the pieces of wood and landed directly on Lux's back. Nara and Marlo followed in suit pinning down Grace while I tumbled around the warehouse with Lux trying every second to get me off.

I got her to her knees and she turned her head around, she held out her arm for balance and fell heavily onto it as I tried to get her to the ground. Her eyes went wide and she smiled, I took the time as a small chance to see what was going on with Nara and Marlo. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to a giant bowl cover them completely. I let out a laugh but was cut off by Lux throwing me off her back and on to the ground. She turned to face me with her hands still on the ground, she brought them up slowly and I felt the ground shaking beneath me.

The bowl shattered and the last of Marlo's shock wave faded out as the shards of china were shot across the warehouse. I jumped back onto my feet and was joined by Nara and Marlo on either side of me. The ground begun to shake even more and a loud roar had now come about to accompany it, the three of us were holding on to each other whilst Grace was gripping onto Lux's arm for dear life. The walls started creaking and turning a darker colour like they were getting wet. A nail shot out of its place and was replaced with a steady flow of water; Nara brushed Marlo and I behind her and summoned a ball of fire from one of the candles.

She started moulding into something, stretching it so it was like the fire snake she had before. She made it slither around her arms again but all the while getting bigger and brighter, she then crossed her arms and let it slither around her head. Lux had raised her hands above her head and the shaking had gotten to a point where there was only two people standing, Nara and Lux. There was a moment of complete stillness; utter silence and I had realised that I had slowed down the time again. Lux was smiling though she looked like she was struggling in some way. Nara was calm and collected although she had some kind of dangerous aura around her.

Then time sped up and all hell broke loose, Lux flicked her wrists up and a tidal wave of water broke through the wall. Nara uncrossed her arms and held them up against the tidal wave, the slithering flame snake jump from her arms and turned into a giant ball of fire. I could hear the roar of the wave behind the fireball but I couldn't see it the blazing ball was vaporising it right in front of my eyes. I saw a few times that Lux tried to break through by flicking out what looked like watery tendrils but every time she tried Nara matched her by flicking her wrist to the side that the tendril was coming from.

The waves power started to overpower Nara, slowly breaking through her fire balls defences. Marlo stepped up beside her friend and smiled at her, she clicked her fingers and two small sound waves came out of it. They hovered in front of her for a second before disappearing through the flame ball. A surprised cry could be heard form the other side along with someone hitting the ground, it must have been Grace because the wave didn't stop fighting for even one second.

Marlo sent out more and more but was stopped by a big bowl hovering over her, before she could move she was trapped underneath it. I walked up to Nara's side then continued so that I was skirting the twisting ball of flames. I came to the end were I could clearly see where the warehouse was cut in half. The side of flames and the side of the waves, I looked at the concrete floor and tilted my head. I automatically felt that tugging pain at my brain again but this time I ignored it. I started lifting my chin, keeping my eyes constantly on the floor.

It begun to split right down the middle where I wanted it, I lifted my chin higher and the roars of flames and waves were drowned out by a new sound. The scraping of rock against rock. I flattened my palms out and up came a shard of rock, solid rock. Still not enough to get their attention, I took it up a notch, I raised my flattened palms quickly and up came a whole wall of rock. Some of it was still tinged with red from the heat of the core. I kept it coming until I saw the waves and flames die down but I didn't want to stop it there. I wanted to see what else I could do. I turned my palms to the ground and spread them in separate directions. The rocks reached the roof and begun to branch off.

The flames and waves had disappeared completely, the pain had been dulled and the rocks begun to crumble. I crunched my hands into fists and the rocks fell apart, falling on my friends. Before they had any time to get close to them I would catch them and send them back down the crack, once everything was gone and we were left staring at each other I let the pain hit me. It hit me hard; I fell to my knees with a smile on my face. I waited for the concrete to come and meet me but instead the softness of a pillow came to comfort me. I let my eyes close and the pain take me into unconsciousness.

We had discovered what we could do, what power we had and how we could kill if we needed and right now I was willing to do anything to get that information. Especially if I knew I could do that.


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up back in my apartment on a lounge; Nara was sitting on the opposite one staring at me. Her eyes lit up and she smiled at me when I looked at her. She got up and tripped on the table leg, she whimpered in pain but upon seeing my concerned gaze she simply grinned and tried to cover her embarrassment. She looked in some way tired as she sat down by my legs. I couldn't put my finger on it, but her almond shaped eyes seemed like they were drooping. She was exhausted, that was for sure.

"Hey, how you going?" She asked, smiling weakly and rubbing her toe. I shrugged and pushed myself up into a sitting position, I noticed that she was dressed for her job. Her shoulder length blonde hair was in two plaits; her brown eyes outlined with eyeliner then topped with some eye shadow and mascara. Her tanned skin had foundation on it with a touch of blush on her cheeks. Her lips had no lipstick; she usually did it in the car on the way.

I didn't know how she did it, wake up so late then make herself look so good. Compared with the rest of the pompous twigs in her class, she was by far the best physically and mentally. She was in designing and textiles class at some fashion school, when I told her about getting a job at where I had she was sucking up to me for weeks. I kept telling her that I didn't want to work there and that there was no way that I could possibly get a job for her there because the boss hated my. Every time I told her that there was a cute pout that she would do either when she was getting picked on by us or when she wanted something she couldn't get.

She nodded and stood up putting on her coat over her white Tshirt and denim vest, she always loved to try and throw things on without really knowing how it looks. The coat accompanied her top and jeans nicely, her boots were at the door and she scooped them up as she walked out the door. Before she went she turned her head back and looked at me.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright? Grace is at the kitchen while Marlo's in the studio, and you know where I'll be. So it's just gonna be you and Lux, okay?" I smiled back at her but felt like she was holding something back, something she wasn't telling me. I tried to remember how I read the other people's minds at the hospital but nothing triggered it. I finally gave her a reassuring wave and looked deeply in her eyes.

_I wonder what she meant by that tinker, tailor, soldier, spy thing she was saying? Oh, I forgot to tell her about what Grace wanted, was it at the kitchen at 4:30? I think so…_

She poked her head back in the door with the rest of her body in the hallway, I shooed her away but she insisted on telling my something.

"Grace wanted us to meet-"

"4:30, I know." I interrupted, she stared at me with her mouth slightly open before shaking her head, smiling then closing the door and walking towards the elevator. I swung my legs over the side of the couch and stood up stretching my arms and legs. Then suddenly, a blinding flash appeared in front of me and I fell back into the couch. I held my head and blinked a couple of times, my surroundings changing with each blink.

I was then in a massive factory, with mannequins around me but in separate parts. Some were fully made, whilst others were just heads or arms or bodies, some parts were joined together with limbs or a head missing. It was a little creepy considering all of the rusting equipment and the dim lighting, it felt like all of the heads were following me as I walked around the wax figures. The ceiling was high with a few holes in it; I could see the grey sky above me. I felt shivers go up my spine and I glanced behind me over my shoulder.

One single mannequin head was just behind me; I narrowed my eyes at it. I didn't remember stepping over it at all; but then again I was practically frightened stiff right now so I wasn't surprised. I forced myself to take a deep breath and keep walking; I turned my head to the front and gasped as I almost walked into a hanging mannequin body. It was wrapped in chains that made a little noise as they rubbed against each other, it was hanging from the ceiling. I ducked underneath and started to walk faster, I definitely didn't remember that body hanging there before I turned to look behind me. I tried to turned my head to look behind me again but I couldn't, it was like it was fixed in place by something.

I cleared my head and focused on finding an exit, my heart was thumping in my chest and my eyes were blurring. I felt something brush my shoulder, I whipped my head behind me to see what it was. It was an out stretched hand, which is when I saw it. The mannequins were following me, heads, legs, arms; bodies, even ears and eyes were all on the floor behind me. I turned around one of the conveyer belts then went into a full on sprint, my eyes darting around the room for a way out that wasn't completely out of the question.

I swung around a pillar and a body dropped right in front of me, I jumped over it then tripped. Something had a hold of my ankle; I looked at my ankle to see wax finger wrapped around it. They attached to the hand that was attached to the arm of the body that had just dropped down, I tried to pry the fingers off but they wouldn't come off. Then I heard a scraping noise; I looked up to see all of the mannequins dragging themselves towards me. The mannequin that had my ankle started to shake, at first I thought it was just what I was doing with my mind but I was sorely mistaken.

With it's other arms it begun making its way to my side and onto my chest, as its grip on my ankle loosened I kicked it off me and scrambled to my feet again. By now the scraping had grown so loud I couldn't hear my own scream, but it wasn't my scream. It wasn't mine, it was Lux's, why was it Lux's? One of the mannequins made a grab for my feet but I kicked it back and ran. But just as I turned around, I was met with a wave of wax body parts. Heads and limbs of all sizes came crashing down on me and I snapped back to reality.

I heard the sound of something hitting the ground and looked around the living room, the table was a little wonky, the rug was creased, the opposite couch was now the neighbouring couch and the TV with its stand was facing the window. I narrowed my eyes at the TV suspiciously and got up off the couch. There was a groan from Lux's bedroom, I raced to her room and opened the door. She was wrapped in her blanket on the ground next to her bed; she smiled at me and tried to get up.

"Sorry about the disturbance, I was just doing my sleep kung fu class." She said as if that was what had actually happened. I chuckled and helped her up, we untangled her from the clutches of the evil blanket and I left her to get dressed while I made breakfast. When she came out she had her long black hair was in a ponytail on the side. No make up on her face, she wore a tank top with shorts and the usual comfy thongs, flip flops, jandals what ever you want to call them.

"So what moves did you learn in your class?" I asked her mixing the pancake batter and setting up the fry pan. She sat down at the bench and shrugged.

"We learned how to punch and kick and then we had time to learn how to kick and punch." She answered matter-of-factly, I went to clip her on the side of the head but she blocked me then pretended to swat it away. I grinned at her and nodded, then she motioned her head towards the living room.

"Did you do some sleep kung fu too?" She questioned; I laughed and poured some batter into the frypan. I shook my head, Lux didn't look convinced. But she didn't press on with the subject.

"Hey, I gotta tell you about this weird dream I had. It was like I was in a factory of mannequin or something and it was really creepy!" She exclaimed, I swung around and stared at her, was she serious? I walked over to the bench and stood on the other side of it. I waved my hand at her to tell me about this dream and off she went.

"Okay, it started in some sort of factory, right? There were mannequins every where and they were just sitting there and you know how there the paintings with the eyes that watch you well it kind of felt like that. But anyways, I was walking along when I felt someone following me but when I turned around there was no one there. Except for a creepy mannequin head." She paused as I recounted everything she was saying as she was saying it.

"Anyway, that was when I felt some one there like a ghost because I couldn't see it but I knew it was friendly." I didn't remember feeling any kind of presence around me in the vision or what ever it was; it was just those unseeing eyes watching me.

"But the presence was very small so I took no notice and went on, I was trying to find a way out and just as I turned my head to look in front of me a mannequin body dropped in front of me!" I listened to her recall every part of her dream, every single detail right up to the end where the wave of body parts came crashing down on her. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, that must have been what the vision was, it was Lux's dream. Did that mean I could see through all of my friend's eyes when they're asleep? Could I do it while they were awake?

"Do what while you're awake?" Lux asked, looking at me expectantly.

"I was just wondering if…" I trailed off as I realised what had just happened, I directed my eyes to Lux and tilted my head slightly. I smiled to myself and shook my head; they couldn't possibly read minds.

"Who says?" She asked threateningly, I held up a finger for her to wait while I flipped the pancakes. I came back to my spot on the opposite side of her and gaped, how could she read my mind? I thought I was going to be the only one, be lonely, no, Lux could read minds too. I crossed my arms in front of my chest and smiled at her.

"Okay, you think you can read minds, what colour am I thinking of?" I challenged, Lux rolled her eyes.

"Oh, joy. The guess the colour game. Okay, we'll play your way." She groaned, I thought of my colour, lavender, and waited for her answer. She smirked at me and I automatically felt less confidant.

"Lavender, honestly Rose do you think I'm stupid?" She answered smartly, I bit my lip and thought of another colour. Olive green was planted in my head as I waited for an answer. Lux lost her smile, lent forward and narrowed her eyes at me, I didn't know how but I must have been blocking her out somehow. She lent back and smiled knowingly.

"Olive green, Rose we can stop playing now if you want because you know you're going to lose." She said, I grinned at her and got my final colour in my head. Scarlet. Lux grimaced and narrowed her eyes even further than before, it almost looked like she had closed them. I on the other hand was having no trouble at all keeping my thought private whilst reading hers.

_Oh man, I knew I should have never done this! She can't possibly be doing this, it isn't fair! I only just discovered I could read minds and now she has to block me out._ I laughed to myself and finally Lux gave up. I took the pancakes out of the frypan and put on the next batch, when they were all done we sat down and had our breakfast at the bench.

"Grace wants us to meet at the kitchen at four o'clock," I told Lux, she looked up from her almost empty plate with golden syrup dribbling down her chin. " She might want some help over there." I added, when we were done I brought the plates up to the sink for Lux to do while I got dressed. I threw on a simple Tshirt and shorts, slipped on some sneakers and tossed my hair up in a braid down my back. I walked out of my room just as Lux finished the dishes. I cleaned up the living room and we headed for the door. We locked the door behind us as we left; we made our way out of my apartment building to be met with something most unusual.

There was a van with some kind of logo on it; we walked past it to my car. Lux climbed into the passenger seat and I got into the drivers, I started the car and we drove off into the city. We headed for Grace's restaurant that she was working at and parked it a few blocks away. We made our way to Central Park and walked around looking at the magnificent park. We walked to an empty bench and sat down.

"So, we need to get the info, right?" Lux asked me, I glanced her way and nodded.

"Then we need a plan." She added, I nodded again but slower. The shade of the trees made it comfortable to sit in and the aroma of freshly cut grass helped me think.

"Okay, so have you got any ideas?" I asked her since she was the one that brought up the subject.

"Not a clue."


	7. Chapter 7

"So, you bring up the subject of a plan with no idea what to put in the plan?" I clarify; Lux sighed with frustration and crossed her arms. We had been sitting and walking around the park for two hours, it was noon and the heat was getting to us both. I was forming a plan in my head and although it was going to be a long shot, I thought I may as well give it go.

"Well, first we need to get past Jarvis. I know you and Nara could do that." I suggested, Lux sat up and turned to me.

"Are you serious? I can't hack that! That's impossible, and we don't even have the equipment to do it with let alone the skill." Lux burst out, we ignored wandering eyes and I continued.

"Don't worry, Nara probably knows a guy." Lux smiled at me.

"Oh, I think she knows many guys." She said mischievously, I clipped her over the back of the head and giggled.

"Not that way, I mean that she can get some stuff for you." I explained, Lux slipped off the bench on to the springy grass and layed on her back with her hands under her head.

"Okay, say if we do that. Then what's next?" Lux asked, obviously intrigued by my plan.

"Right, if we take out Jarvis, and mind you it wouldn't have to be for very long, we need to cause a big commotion. Something that will bring them all out." I continued, Lux was starting to smile as the plan unfolded without me having to even tell her.

"They will all come out and since they don't know how many of us there are they won't suspect any of us stealing the info. Therefore leaving us an open spot to go in, grab the information and get out. And if they do see the person grabbing the info at the start then that person just needs to be seen frequently enough for it to be convincing." I finished; Lux was nodding to herself, seeing the whole plan come together in front of her. She sat up and stretched her arms.

"I like it, but lets assume that the information carrier is you and you were seen right at the start of this 'commotion', then what?" Lux asked curiously, I had a back up plan for the plan.

"We could hide a few disguises in a diner bathroom near the 'commotion' location and afterwards run there, put them on then join the crowd and just hope they don't spot us." I knew what I was saying was quite a long shot, but so far it was all we had. Lux shrugged and jumped to her feet, she pulled me onto mine and we made our way out of the park. We walked back to Grace's work and went in through the back door.

We were met with a view of her talking to her boss about something, we watched in silence as he tried to make a grab for her hand. She pulled it away before he could touch her; he looked quite hurt as he walked away. When she finally noticed us, Lux was on the ground in stitches and I could barely stifle the laugh I was holding. Grace marched up to us as I yanked Lux off the floor, she didn't look happy.

"What is so funny?" She asked, Lux cracked up again and Grace put her hands on her hips.

"It's just the fact that your boss fancies you." I explained, Grace's mouth fell open and Lux stopped laughing. At that moment, the boss poked his head into the room and smiled awkwardly at us.

"Oh sweet eclair! We need you and your friends in the kitchen now, thank you!" He said too sweetly for me to listen to. He disappeared and Grace followed him with me on her heels as we left Lux behind to die from laughter.

We walked down a short hallway that opened up into the kitchen with a clear view of the diner in front. The boss said he would get Grace and I to do the actual dishes because of our experience, Lux would prepare the ingredients for us. So, Grace and I got busy doing so many different pastries that I could have sworn it would feed a starving village. And we could see why we had to do so many; the café was quite busy as the day went on. We were throwing flour everywhere and before we knew it, Nara and Marlo had returned from their jobs.

Marlo told us about a new tune she was making for a recording studio as she helped Lux with the preparations. Nara was sent to help us with the making of the dishes and she told us about how hard it was to manoeuvre different materials. As the day went on, we made such a mess and since it was Marlo and Lux's job to clean up we made even more. Eggs were cracking all over the benches, milk was spilling onto the floor and all the while we were trying to get Grace as close to the boss as possible.

I this was also an opportunity to test out my telepathy, I read the customers minds and sent it to Grace who would take the orders. It took a little while for her to figure it out that I was doing it purely through my mind, but after a while she got used to it. She then taught it to the rest of them so that it was deathly quiet in the kitchen while we were having a full on conversation in our heads. I did notice something though, it was only me that could receive anything and then it was me that had to pass on something.

But it didn't matter, we got used to it and it came to the last customer when I stumbled on something interesting. He walked up to the counter, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, broad shoulders to basically outline his description. He looked like someone familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. I read his mind for his order as he said it; I sent it on to Grace then something came up. He was thinking about some kind of mission, what kind of person does this? Then it clicked, this is Captain America.

Standing in front of me was on of the very Avengers that I will be fighting soon; I smiled at him as he noticed my stare. I went through the doorway that led to the kitchen, and clipped the order on the corkboard. With that I sent them all an urgent message.

_Guys, we got a superhero out the front. We need to bail. _I sent to them all, I saw Lux looked up from where she was mopping and glance out to the front. Marlo's hazel eyes briefly flicked to him before continuing to wipe up a cracked egg on the bench top. I went to make his coffee as Nara joined me, a buzzing could be heard from the front. We poked our head out the small gap and everyone was staring at the light dangling in the centre of the room.

Then a zap could be heard from across the street just before the light bulb exploded in a shower of sparks. The soldier muttered something under his breath and the smell of smoke filled the air. The sparks had bounced onto the floor and started a fire, people ran from the building screaming. Only five of the seventeen got out before the doorway collapsed trapping us inside. A crunching sound could be heard from behind us as the backdoor collapsed leaving us absolutely no way to get out.

"We have to help them!" shouted Grace, the first words we'd said for hours. I was first to be against the idea, I shook my head and Grace glared at me. Marlo went and stood beside Grace followed by Lux with her mop still in her hand.

"Over ruled, let's go help these people." Stated Marlo then disappeared through the doorway into the café that was quickly clouding with smoke. Lux dropped the mop and strolled out behind her friend with Grace right behind her. Nara gave me a sympathetic look then forwarded out behind them

"We're going to get discovered and it's going to make our plan to get the info so much harder." I commented just before she walked out, with that I huffed in frustration and made my way to the smoking area. The soldier was trying to lift the planks of wood out of the way of the door but every time he did another would take its place. He stood back out of the way to observe what was going on when Grace pushed in front of him. A laser materialised in her hand and she begun cutting her way through.

The smoke was getting thicker now and people were coughing violently, Nara started bending the flames out of the way and I stood there watching. Grace threw the laser at the wall, as it didn't seem to be working, Lux had brought a bucket of water out to the front. She used her powers to bring it out of the bucket and somehow increase its mass. She would then throw it onto the fire, although more smoke would come from it she would put out the fire. Marlo was trying to blast the door out with her shock waves but that wasn't working either, Grace had started making fire blankets to put out the rest of the fires while Nara and Lux were working furiously together. Then I saw a movement in the corner of my eye; someone was going to try the back door. That's when everyone ran for the back of the store, everyone ran for the back room but there was no point because the leader knocked over a bottle of cooking oil which quickly caught alight.

Now he was trapped on the other side with the rest of the customers on the other side. Everyone was screaming, coughing, clawing at the walls, everything that could be possible. I looked over to Marlo who had just tried another shock wave that knocked out a piece of concrete, another fell down but there was a slight chip in the next piece that allowed very little of the smoke to escape. The windows were jammed and because of the spilling cooking oil, more fire was coming about.

Marlo turned to the people hiding away from the flames and slowly their breathing eased, they were getting calmer. Marlo had a look of intense concentration on her face as she moved from one group to another. I turned to the blocked doorway to see Captain America trying to lift it again, I shook my head at him and concentrated. I blocked out the scorching heat of the fire and the uncomfort of breathing with all of the smoke.

I concentrated solely on the concrete, I slowly clenched my fists and the concrete started shaking. I slowed my breathing and pushed my chin upwards, the concrete followed my action and started lifting up. Planks of wood fell to take it's place, my eyes shot to them in mid air and they froze. I narrowed my eyes, almost threatening them to fall. Smoke was bellowing out of the gap I was making, I felt the tug at my head as I raised the objects higher. It wasn't as bad as it was yesterday, when I made the barricade with the crates; it was just an annoying dull pain.

People started crawling out while Captain America guided them; the wailing of sirens could be heard as the fire department came to the burning building. Once everyone was out, the soldier held out his arm for me to take but I shook my head. He raised his eyebrows but I just shook my head again.

"Leave no soldier behind." He told me, he waved for me to go with him but I shook my head, harder this time.

"Nara, go get the man from the back room and bring him in here." I ordered her without taking my eyes off him. There was the shuffle of feet and I watched his eyes go wide as they watched Nara leap through the wall of fire. I motioned with my head for him to go, with a final glance and a reassuring nod from me he slid under the suspended the piece of concrete and disappeared. I sighed and watched as Grace, Lux and Marlo followed behind him.

Then Nara and the person who ran bolted past me, I slowly edged my way towards the doorway when I felt the pieces slipping from my grip. I started to go faster but the concrete was starting to drop, I took a few more steps and the concrete was now only leaving a narrow gap not enough for me to get through. Then fire rushed past me and blasted the concrete out through the doorway into the street in front of us. None of the flame touched me as they propelled the piece of concrete into the neighbouring building.

I stared at Nara as she brought the flames back into the building, followed by a rush of water from Lux to put it out. I ran out to meet them, by now we had bystanders and the fire department here watching. The building started crumbling towards everyone, as the bricks began to fall Marlo blasted them back with a massive shock wave so that it fell the other way. From the shock, some of the bricks flung outwards towards us. Grace waved her hands in front of her and a wall appeared, blocking the oncoming brick from us.

As the wall fell away to the minuscule particles they were, a blast of heat came from the building as it fell to ruins. Lux stepped in front of us and held up her hands, a shield of water came up in front of us. It collected the heat from the collapsing building. Steam could be seen as the heat hit the shield but it still stayed up. Lux started breathing hard, her eyes narrowed as she focused on her skill. Soon the heat died down and she fell to her knees with a smile on her face. She looked exhausted. I ran to her side and stopped her from falling onto her face.

"Did we do it?" She asked, looking like she could have fallen asleep right there. I nodded and watched as yet another fire truck came speeding towards us. I watched it coming towards us and noticed that it was coming too quickly and won't stop before it hits us. I noticed Captain America was on Lux's other side, peering at her with concern. I walked up to the fire trucks path and held one arm out, the screeching of tires filled my ears. The pain in my head slammed me in the face; I ignored it and put out my other arm.

The fire truck still was coming too quickly and I was using all the force I could. I did the first thing that I thought of, as the fire truck reached me I lifted it up and over my head. I did the actions with my hands and fire truck followed, soaring over my head to land perfectly on the other side of my. I now pulled back with my hands and the fire truck stopped completely. I realised I was holding my breath, I let it out and looked around at the scene.

People were applauding us, actually clapping for us. Marlo helped Lux to her feet as we came together, in the centre of a circle of civilians. Lux was bowing to them whereas Grace and Nara were smiling shyly. I gave Marlo a side glance and she had the same idea as me.

We now had to betray these people.


	8. Chapter 8

When we safely got back to my apartment, we sat down in the living room and silence settled upon us. A faint rumble could be heard and Grace looked at her stomach.

"I'm hungry." She complained, Nara and Marlo smiled while Lux rolled her eyes.

"Then make something." She retorted, Grace stretched and got up. Nara giggled, Lux gave her a side-glance and looked back at Grace.

"With your powers, idiot!" She reminded, Grace gave her a death stare and sat back down. She put her hand out in front of her and a little cupcake materialised, perfectly iced and with sprinkles on top. Lux watched her with a puzzled expression as Grace ate the cupcake and smiled in satisfaction. Marlo and Lux looked at each other with equally puzzled expressions.

"I'm still hungry." Grace stated, Lux pinched the bridge of her nose and Marlo grinned at her.

"Then make some more." Nara said as she patted Lux on the back, Grace's eyes brightened and another cupcake formed in her hand. I waved my hand for her to make more but she shook her head.

"It hurts my head if I do too much." She said casually, everyone stared at her as she took a bite.

"Same with me." Agreed Marlo, we nodded in agreement at this new finding. I thought it was only me that felt it, obviously not. We all felt what ever it was.

"Wait, you said that your head hurt when you did too much, right?" Marlo confirmed, Grace nodded and took another bite over her cupcake. Marlo glanced at me and looked to the floor.

"It must be some kind of limit that we reach, when we do too much it's there to tell us not to go over." Marlo stated, Nara nodded thoughtfully and Lux blinked at her.

"What happens if we go over? It couldn't be something too bad." Lux inquired, I looked over to her. She had dark circles around her eyes and she seemed to be sitting back more in the couch.

"Well I wouldn't want to find out, for now we know that it takes our energy from us." I answered; Lux shrugged her shoulders in response. Grace finished her cupcake and sighed.

"So, do we have a plan to get the information on Ashley?" Nara asked, changing the subject. I nodded and Lux begun to explain, about hacking into Jarvis and then drawing them out and getting someone into the tower.

"Right, now because they know our faces we need to become invisible. We have to do the second version of the plan." Grace clarified, I nodded and Lux rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, no thanks to you guys. Now they know what we look like." She said, Marlo glared at her.

"Who was the one that came out right after Grace? You didn't help one bit." Marlo retorted, she was right but she was getting a bit harsh. Lux stood up and took a step towards Marlo.

"You could have stopped me, it is possible you know!" Lux exclaimed, Marlo stood up so that they were face to face.

"Of course it is, when you feel like being a push over and not fighting." Marlo objected, the pipes in the kitchen rattled and a stream of water came flying in from the kitchen. It stopped just above Lux's shoulder.

"Oh, come at me!" She challenged, Marlo gasped and got ready to throw a punch but Nara stepped between them and pushed them apart. She glared at them in turned then sat back down.

"You two, shut up."

"You shut up." Lux muttered under her breath, the blob of water that had been hovering above her shoulder had disappeared as she sank back into her seat. I glanced from Marlo to Lux then back to Marlo and stood up.

"You both went out there, all of you didn't listen to me." I said softly, everyone turned their heads towards me.

"But they could have died without our help." Grace reminded, I nodded and stared at the floor.

"Look, we could have dodged it and we were wrong not to listen to you. But we need to start doing something to get the plan in action." Nara said, lifting our spirits slightly.

"Speaking of action, how's the boy toy going?" Lux asked Nara, for a moment there was an awkward silence until Nara answered.

"_Axel _is fine thank you, and he is not a boy toy!" She shouted making Lux chuckle; Lux loved stirring up both Grace and Nara. Whatever personal information she had on them, she would find a way to make people laugh about it. But she was human so she would listen to them when they said stop.

"And anyway, what do you mean by action?" She said, obviously suspicious of how innocently Lux meant that question. Lux smiled knowingly at Nara and shook her head.

"Nara what do you mean 'doing something'?" Grace asked her; Nara was about to open her mouth when Lux cut in.

"Oh, I think we all know what she means by doing something…" Lux said mischievously, Nara pouted and moved next to Grace.

"You mean like train?" Marlo asked Nara after trying to hold back a small laugh, Nara nodded in response. This was quite a good thought; we could gain more control over our powers. We could stand a chance against the world famous heroes. After all, they had a genius in an armoured suit, a super soldier, a demi god, an archer that never misses his target and a Russian. What could be scarier? But I felt like I was forgetting someone of the group of heroes.

"How many of them are there?" I asked my friends, they looked thoughtful for a second before Lux answered first.

"Five." She said, Grace stared at her and shook her head.

"No, there are only four." She corrected, Marlo rubbed her forehead.

"Yeah, I think there are five of them. Well, I only remember five." Marlo supported, Grace looked at her with disbelief and that's when the whole argument started.

"Name them." Nara said, obviously taking a side with Grace. Lux smiled and shrugged.

"Sure, there's Iron Face, there's the big thunder guy, the weird looking guy with the shield that we saw the other day, what's-his-name with the bow and the evil Russian lady." Lux said smugly, Grace thought about it for a moment then nodded in sadness at having her point proved wrong.

"I swear there were six, wasn't there some kind of colourful guy?" I questioned; all of them stared at me and shook their heads.

"But I thought, um… Blue? Red? Green? Green! He was green!" I remembered part of him, he was green but that's about it. Still they all stared at me like I had lost my marbles. I sighed and looked out the window; maybe I was just imagining things.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but tomorrow I'm going back to the warehouse and training. It gives us some kind of chance for when we do stand up against them." Nara stated, standing up with Lux standing up right after her.

"I, for one, second that notion!" She said dramatically, Grace smiled and jumped to her feet with Marlo coming up at the same time. They all grinned at me waiting for me to join them but I continued to look out the window.

"What if it doesn't work? What if it's a complete failure?" I asked, Lux held out her hand and did that famous knowing smile of hers.

"That's why you are going to get the files." She said grabbing my hand and pulling me up and out of my chair. I raised my eyebrows and she nodded, Marlo patted me on the shoulder and Nara smiled at me.

"We'll be the decoys so you can sneak in and get them." Grace clarified, I was shocked and I think they could all see it. I seriously thought Nara or Grace might do it, not me.

"Why me?" I asked, I took a step away from them and almost fell over the chair. Marlo caught me by my shoulders and straightened me up again.

"First, you are the smartest of us, closely followed by me, so you will know a safe route to and from the files. Second, it's a good way to leave you unknown to them; they won't properly know the full strength of your power if you are only in and out of there. Got it?" Marlo explained, I nodded in understanding when she finished. So I had to make an appearance at the start and the end of the battle all the while in the middle of it sneak off to the tower, collect the files and get out without being seen in any way. I smiled at them, I was grateful for their faith in me, that they trusted me with the main part of this battle.

"So tomorrow we begin train our powers so we can lessen the chance of finding out what ever this barrier in our brains is keeping us from." I summarised, everyone nodded and smiled at each other. Lux put her hand up for us to stop and we all looked at her.

"We need to become invisible, like Grace said before. I know just how to do that, but I need a computer." She said, we grinned at each other before going to our separate rooms to go find a computer for Lux. We didn't need to ask why, we never question her when she says she needs something, she usually makes good use of it anyway. Except if its food.

"I got a guy that can get us twelve holographic screens, four hard drives and a whole heap of other things for us." Nara shouted from her room, there was a brief rustling from Lux's room before she shouted back.

"How long until he gets them here?" There was a short pause from Nara's end, a few bumps could be heard from Grace's room.

"A week." Yelled Nara, Lux cursed and shuffling could be heard in her room. I was typing on my computer while Marlo was surfing the net on her phone.

"Got it! There's a library about twenty minutes from here." She shouted, we ran to her room to look at the route to it. A smile spread across Lux's face, she grabbed Nara by her arm and ran out the door. Grace, Marlo and I looked at each other and followed behind our friend but she was nowhere to be seen.

She was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

I stared down the empty hallway as Grace and Marlo joined me on both sides, I nodded to myself and headed back inside. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grace and Marlo give each other puzzled looks before forwarding inside behind me. I sat back down on the couch and tried to focus on Nara, what she was looking at right this very moment. I closed my eyes and there it was, the blur of the car park as Lux led her to her car.

_So you don't bother telling us where you're going, you just run off right? _I sent to Lux, Nara glanced at Lux for a brief second seeing her confused expression then opened the car door and threw herself inside.

_Yep, that's the plan. Could you keep me up to date with the time and route and stuff like that? Much appreciated. _Lux replied, Nara closed the door and looked over to the driver's seat where Lux had just got in. They closed their doors; Lux started the engine and zoomed off towards the library. I opened my eyes and my sight was brought back, there was a slight dizzy feeling in my head but I managed to get myself back to reality.

"Marlo, you still got the route to the library?" I asked her, she nodded and showed me the map on her phone. I memorised it and quickly checked the time, 6:19. I closed my eyes and focused on Nara again, I was surprised by the roaring of the engine in my ears as Lux sped along the road. It was like she was in a formula one race car, swerving around other cars and throwing Nara around like a rag doll even with her seat belt on.

_Lux, the time is almost twenty past six. Judging by where you are now you need to take a left, another left, two rights then follow the street down to the second street on the right then keep following that until you reach it. _I sent, I caught a glimpse out of Nara's eye that Lux nodded and started following my directions.

_Hey, do you by any chance know what time the library closes? _She asked with urgency obvious in her thought. I opened my eyes and the world in front of me swam, I could feel myself starting to shift in my seat and grabbed onto the arm of the couch for support. Marlo glanced at me with worry; Grace had gone to the kitchen because she was nowhere to be seen. Marlo sat down beside me and gazed out the window, with her phone still in my hand I searched up the library's web site and looked for the closing times.

_Today, the library closes at six thirty. So you have about ten minutes to go before it closes. _I reported back to Lux, the thoughts were starting to echo in my head as they left and came. I checked on Lux again through Nara's eyes, the edges around her sight were starting to get fuzzy but it was probably nothing so I ignored it. Lux swerved around a corner and sped along the final road before she came to a sudden halt outside the library. Nara's seat belt yanked her back before her head went through the windscreen and a slight yelp escaped her lips.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I going too fast?" Lux asked innocently, Nara whipped her head around to glare at her and do her signature pout. Lux snickered at her reaction and got out of the car, closely followed by Nara who then came around to the front of the library where Lux was standing. Nara gave Lux a glance then followed her behind the library, into the garden that surrounded it, and to a back window that gave them a clear view of the computers that were so desperately needed.

"Wonderful!" Mumbled Lux with excitement, then the dark room lit up slightly. A doorway was giving off light to the right of the computers behind some bookshelves. Nara blinked in surprise and Lux started whispering random words under her breath. I was going to find out what happened next but all of a sudden I was back in my apartment. Marlo was staring at me with her fierce concentration that she had when she was using her powers and had her hands gripped onto my shoulders. She blinked a couple of times and the look disappeared, she loosened her grip on my shoulders and I automatically felt like falling forward off the couch.

Her grip tightened again and she straightened me up, she leant me up against the back of the couch and let me go. It was as if she was the frame that was holding me up because as soon as she let go I sunk into the cushions of the couch like I was lead. I took a few deep breaths and let myself rest for a little; Marlo kept staring at me like I was going to pass out or something. I didn't blame her; I did feel quite light headed and although I was getting better by the second I still didn't trust myself just yet.

Everything gradually came back in what felt like hours but when I checked the time on Marlo's phone it was only twenty minutes. When I was about to go check on Lux again I heard a loud crash from the kitchen. Marlo looked over the back of the couch into the kitchen doorway.

"One of us should help her." She suggested, then there was silence. Marlo smiled and looked at me, I shrugged and folded my arms in front of my chest. Marlo raised her eyebrows and motioned with her head towards the kitchen. I shook my head and gave her the same motion she sent to me back to her. She shook her head and stretched out on the couch with her arms under her head and closed her eyes. I threw my hands up in defeat and got up to go to the kitchen.

When I walked in I saw I pile of frypans next to Grace who was sitting next to them clutching her foot like it was going to fall off. She opened her mouth to give me an explanation, so I thought.

"What took you so long? There's a big bang and I come running but with you, you stop to have high tea with the queen then come!" She shouted, I smiled at Grace then knelt down beside her and examined her foot. It was a little bruised and red but definitely not broken, she wouldn't have it cut off this time.

"Well, the good news is that it's not broken so you can walk. Bad news is that it might hurt a little." I said to her after examining her foot enough to come to a conclusion. She opened her mouth to say something again but I got in first.

"Grace, why are there frypans everywhere?" I asked, she closed her mouth briefly then a slight blush came over her face.

"I couldn't reach the big frypan to start with making dinner so I thought I might try and make one instead. So I tried and next thing I know there's a whole pile of them in front of me. They all landed on my foot and it hurt!" Grace explained, I stifled a laugh and she gave me one of her death stares. I stepped back and a confused expression came over her face. I slowed my breathing and it finally clicked in her brain, I was going to get her to the lounge room.

Ever so slowly, I raised my hand and she followed my command. Staying in her seated position she gradually floated above the ground and followed my hand out of the doorway to the lounge room. I came out behind her with Marlo looking on in amazement. I lowered her onto the opposite couch and dropped my hand back down to my side. She sighed, still holding her foot, and made herself comfortable while I sat back down next to Marlo.

"Thanks Rose, at least you care about me." She stated with a glare directed at Marlo, I chuckled then closed my eyes and went back to focusing on what Lux was going to do. Nara's view seemed to come to me almost instantly. They had climbed in through the window and were now just edging their way towards the computers. Lux peeped around the corner then looked at Nara.

"I need a distraction, could you do it?" Lux asked, Nara nodded in response and she took off across the little beam of light. There were surprised expressions and threatening shouts from everyone inside the room, Nara's eyes widen as she was suddenly forced to run from an oncoming mob. She sprinted out the main door and down the hall with the mob right behind her. She glanced behind her to see how far away they were but she, and I, could barely believe what we saw.

Her path was ablaze; she was leaving fire behind as she ran. She turned into the office to catch her breath, hoping that the small trail of fire she had left behind would confuse her chasers. Her eyes were going wild, looking for another door or window to get out of. She walked quickly throughout the office, now in search of some place to hide rather than an escape route. From the memory of the map of the library there was no way out through there. Nara's heart raced and I opened my eyes; I couldn't bear to see any more.

Instead I closed my eyes to check on Lux and how she was doing, I was met with files whizzing past my eyes at a million miles an hour. Lux was hitting delete at every opportunity she got, pictures of us were thrown out and practically destroyed. Personal information was erased from existence and as I had suspected, there was not one thing about Ashley in there. Of course they would only keep a hard copy, the on-line one would be too easy access.

_Ha, little Nara. Such a good decoy, so expendable and so willing to do it. Maybe she should be our decoy in all our missions. _Lux thought mischievously, I gasped and sent that on to Nara.

_You know I can hear you. _I reminded her, she jumped slightly in her seat then shook her head. Her fingers moved faster as the sound of feet approaching her came to her ears. The sound begun to echo off the walls and the sounds of Nara with the mob behind her came in to a better quality. She was deleting like crazy now, when suddenly Nara burst into the room. Lux smiled to herself and shut the computer down, Nara ran to her side just as she got out of her seat. The mob came to meet them and in her evident panic, Nara spread a small wall of fire between Lux and her and the mob.

Then Lux conjured up a large blob of water and dropped it on the wall of fire, a massive cloud of steam bellowed from the now extinguished fire. Lux and Nara took this as their chance to run to the window, jumped out of it, streak to the car and speed off. I opened my eyes and smiled at my friends.

"They're coming home now, as of now we are officially invisible." I reported to my friends, they nodded and smiled at each other. We waited until Lux and Nara got back before we celebrated. We congratulated them and ordered pizza for the night, we put on music and danced around the lounge room for the rest of the night until we were so tired we all practically slept on the floor.

I was the first to drop off; listening to Lux, Marlo and Nara talk about their life problems while Grace just listened. It was quite a soft landing in the land of unconsciousness; I took it in with open arms, as we would have to start training tomorrow. It would take a lot out of us, especially if we were to start from finding our barriers that kept us from being complete psychos with our powers. I soon came out in a dream; everything seemed softer than what it actually was. Trees surrounded me and something lay in my hand. I looked down at it and saw my flute, polished and ready for playing.

I walked around the beautiful forest of tall trees before I came to a glade with beautiful misty water flowing over the rocks. Birds chirped above my head as I sat down on one of the rocks next to the silent stream. I held my flute in my hands for a second, admiring it because I hadn't seen it for so long. The silver instrument threw off flecks of sunlight as it bounced of it and it felt cool in my palms.

I brought it to my lips and begun to play the first song that came to my head, I couldn't remember the name of it but I knew the notes. The song reminded me of a spinning top or a windmill, something spinning without an end. It didn't have notes that dramatically changed, or have difficult parts to play. It was simple but had something about it that made me become attached to it. It was in a way mysterious, like seeing someone out in the middle of a storm, you know it would be dangerous out there but you go anyway to see who it is. Mystery and danger in such an innocent song.

I was just about to blow the next note when I noticed that I was just blowing on air, the flute had disappeared. The water stopped abruptly and the trees begun to wilt, I felt a strange presence nearby. Like Death had come to get me. I leaped off of my rock and begun to run through the dieing forest. The green ferns beneath my feet were turning brown before my very eyes and crunching as I ran. Dead leaves started to rain down on me, obscuring my vision slightly.

The air was getting fresher and I knew there would be some kind of end to the forest soon. I was right, but it wasn't the end I wanted. I stopped to survey the scene. Tree trunks lay everywhere, some spattered with blood, ferns had curled over to die and thorns had begun to sprout in some places. The smell of ash and burnt wood reached my nose closely followed by rotting flesh. Then I felt breath on my neck and turned around to see the thing I was running from, a tall hooded figure. I took a step away from it and tripped over a fallen trunk. I fell hard on my elbows and stared in horror as the hooded figure lifted the shadow from its face.

I gasped as I realised the figure was Marlo, kind, friendly Marlo. She offered me a hand and I flinched at her gesture, worry clouded her eyes and she opened her mouth.

"Rose! Rose, wake up!" She screamed and before I knew it I was awake, but I still thought I was dreaming when I saw what was going on.


	10. Chapter 10

Devastation, that was the first word that came to mind. The couches were flipped upside down, the TV and its stand had been flung out the window, pieces of wood from what looked to be my bed frame lay at my feet. There was also ash and lots of water around the apartment as well. Glass scattered the floor and I couldn't see my friends anywhere apart from Marlo who had cuts on her arms and face. She sat down on the upturned couch and evened her breathing, from one of the holes through the walls I could see movement.

"Is she awake?" Came Grace's feeble voice, it was then that I noticed the sound of sirens coming towards us. The wind outside started to pick up and it blew through the smashed window, rattling what was left of it.

"Yeah, she's awake." Marlo replied, not taking her green eyes off of me. A held breath was released as Nara, Lux and Grace stepped out from behind the wall. They stared at me as they came out; I could see fear in their eyes.

"What happened?" I asked trying not to sound demanding, Lux's eyes widen and Marlo nodded.

"I told you she would be oblivious to it all." She explained to the still shocked Lux. I glanced from Lux to Grace the Nara and finally at Marlo. They all had bruises and cuts on them, it looked like they had already started the plan without me.

"Okay, this really isn't funny now. Who ever trashed my apartment needs to clean it up and tell me what's going on." I said, Nara rubbed her neck and Grace stared out the broken window, deliberately avoiding my eyes. Lux knelt beside me and put a bleeding hand on my shoulder.

"You did this." She whispered, I snapped my head around to look at her and read her expression.

"She's telling the truth." Marlo confirmed upon seeing my surprised reaction. I narrowed my eyes at her and she came to sit next to me.  
"Her heart rate's low, no twitches, she's looking you directly in the eye, she isn't lying." She added, I shrugged and looked around the apartment again. It was beyond repair, everything was in pieces. The sirens were getting closer to us and I begun to panic.

"How did I do this?" I asked quickly, Lux glanced at Marlo before staring at the ground.

"You, I don't know, might have done this in your sleep." Marlo suggested, I stared at her before I got up from my seat on the floor and looked out the window. Flashing lights could be seen in the distance as they raced towards us.

"We need to split." Nara said, we all turned to look at her as she gazed at the door. Grace nodded and that was all that needed to be said. We ran to our rooms to get changed and pack what we could in the little time we would have left. I quickly threw on whatever I could get my hands on and got set to pack.

I yanked my backpack out from my cupboard; I stuffed as many clothing items as I could in. A toothbrush, toothpaste and a hairbrush closely followed and I quickly put my emerald necklace around my neck. All it was, was a small emerald pendant on a piece of string. I had found it in the street one day and decided to pick it up, thinking that it might do something for me.

With that, I gave one final glance at my room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything when I heard some rattling coming from the kitchen. I hauled my backpack onto my back then ran to the kitchen. Five earpieces were layed out on the kitchen bench for me to see with Lux looking over them.

"Just give me a moment to calibrate them and we'll be hooked." She reported upon seeing my confused expression. I nodded then went back out into the living room; Nara was sitting on the ground with her hands in her lap and her bag on her back. Her shoulder length blonde hair was still as perfect as she left it.

"You should have seen it." She muttered, I tilted my head in questioning and walked over to her.

"You weren't doing anything, you were sleeping like a rock. Lux and Grace, even I didn't hear anything. It was only Marlo that could sense what was going on, she could almost feel it in some way." She begun, I could tell she was trying to keep it light but the worry she had in her brown eyes said to me that it was quite bad.

"We were just about to go to bed when Marlo shook her head and walked over to you, she tried waking you up. Gently at first but then resorted to beating you with a pillow, that still didn't wake you up. There was a noise like rattling pipes, we ignored since we knew it was an old building." She paused and I motioned for her to continue, all the while listening to the noise in Grace and Marlo's rooms as well as the ever approaching sirens.

"We didn't know you were doing it, it was like a hurricane. We felt the building start to shake, slowly at first and it was barely noticeable. The windows rattled and the walls shook, it gradually got even more violent until it was like the whole earth was going to crack in two." A shiver went down my spine as I tried to remember even a scrap of what had happened while I was asleep, nothing. No sound, no smell, no rocking motion, nothing.

"We were hiding in your room when we saw things start to fly around and smash into walls. We watched you throw the TV and it's stand out the window! You were still sleeping like a log while everything was flying around you, we were so worried. That's when Marlo had the idea that she could get you to wake up. So, I incinerated anything that got too close to her as well as Lux finding out that she can turn objects to water." I nodded, then understanding why there was so much water and ash around. Nara sighed and twirled some of her hair around her finger; she usually did that when she was nervous.

"She made her way out to you then, I don't really know what she did, but you woke up." She finished; Grace came flying out of her room and tripped over one of the upturned couches. She fell forward but just before she hit the ground, a pile of pillows materialised and cushioned her fall. Her arms and legs flailed around for something to grasp that wasn't air or pillows. Her head poked out above the pile and she begun pulling herself out whilst giving both Nara and I a death stare. But before she could get out, Marlo came out of her bedroom, which was right in front of the pile, and of course she fell in too.

Lux came into the lounge room with the earpieces in hand, with a confused glance at the pile of moving pillows she gave Nara and I our new form of communication. I sighed and started making some of the pillows float away so that the untangling process would be easier. There was a surprised cry from Marlo as she tumbled out of the decreasing pillow pile, her long dark brown hair a mess.

There was a muffled shout as Grace came out and whacked her knee on the same upturned couch she tripped on. Lux snickered as she threw them their earpieces; we all put ours in and pulled on our sneakers. The sirens were now about a block away so we had to move fast.

"Right, to save any miss communications and Rose fainting and killing us all I've made these and set them up so that we can talk to each other. Rose can check on us using her seeing through the other's eyes thing and report back if need be. Are we all clear?" Lux said, we all nodded and filed out of the room but just before we left I looked back over my shoulder to see Nara standing in the doorway. She held out her hand and a spark flickered from it, she slowly clenched her hand into a fist and the sound of flame roaring inside the apartment filled my ears.

"Leave no evidence behind." She mumbled before she came to join me, we walked to the stairs then met our friends down in the lobby.

"Okay, first thing is we all need to go different ways. Second, no one goes to the warehouse. Third, keep your eyes open." I said, they all nodded and we forwarded out the doors into the car park to be met with flashing lights just up ahead. With that, Grace and Marlo started off towards the east of the apartments, Lux took the back way and Nara headed to the west. I took a few deep breaths and started my walk towards the city. I kept to the back streets and alleyways as I walked to the lights of New York. I was just skirting a building when I saw three police cars speed past me on their way to the apartments. As I made my way further into the city, it begun getting busier and busier until there was barely even room to breath. Bright lights glared down on me and so many smells hit my nose at once I couldn't tell the difference between them.

"Hey, how's everyone going? I've just split from Grace so she on her own." Marlo said, the first one to talk on these earpieces. The quality was quite good for something so small, it was like she was standing right in front of me and talking.

"Yep, I'm fine now that you ditched me." Replied a very scared sounding Grace; there was a laugh from someone else.

"Oh, darling, are you okay?" Lux asked with fake sympathy, then in a lower voice she directed to me.

"Alright, Rose we need to ambush Grace and give her the scare of her life." I laughed and smiled to myself.

"Why don't you ask me to come scare her?" Whined an obviously distressed Nara, Lux chuckled.

"Because you would probably get scared as well." Replied Lux coolly; there was a slight pause when Lux piped up again.

"Are you pouting?" Another pause as Lux waited for her answer.

"No…" Nara answered, she knew she had been found out but in every effort she tried to cover it up she just made it worse.

"Oh, you think you can hide it from me? I can hear you pout from a mile away!" Lux exclaimed, another pause and now both Grace and Lux were laughing. I looked up at the towering buildings around me, the blinding lights blocking most of the view of the night sky. Like when you're in a rainforest and the branches of the trees block most of the sky from view. The people walking, although packed like sardines trying to move, would only lightly brush past me as I walked. I kept walking, kept moving until I saw a little alley in which I could rest for a second to get my sense of direction back.

I rushed into the alley and slumped up against the wall, I focused on my breathing and to stop the world from spinning in front of me. The heat from all of the lights was making me heat up and it was then that I realised that I should have gotten a water bottle. I stared up at the sky, having a clearer view than what I did while I was walking. I was looking at the rooftops, skimming them for a place I might be able to sit for the night since sleeping in general wasn't a good idea when I saw something. At first I didn't know what it was, a lump of a shadow but once I looked at it long enough I saw what it was.

"Guys, keep your heads down and your eyes open." I spoke with urgency into the comm.

"Why?" Asked Grace who seemed to have calmed down from her previous state.

"We're being watched."


	11. Chapter 11

I stared at the dark figure looking over the city for a moment longer before a small drop of water hit my hand. I glance at my hand then the sky; clouds were beginning to form over the city. I groaned and straightened up, getting ready to run for it.

"Hey, guess what? I know how to make it rain!" Lux called, I gazed up at the sky again as another drop of water came down to hit me on the nose.

"Be prepared for some freak weather. Nara helped me out with some of it, like the warming of the air and stuff but I did most of it." Lux added, there was a rumble of thunder and more of the drops started spraying down. I made a break for it running out onto the footpath with the lights glaring down on me again. The rain started as yet another clap of thunder sounded overhead, this time a little louder than the last.

People begun scattering around to find some kind of shelter; I was sprinting down the pavement not daring to look back. Another clap of thunder sounded and the first bolt of lightning struck, I could hear Lux laughing like a maniac on the comm as I ran for my life through the shifting crowd. The sound of horns blaring filled my ears as people ran across the roads for shelters under spare buildings, as I looked up the rain got heavier. It obscured my vision making it look like the lights were a reflection on a lake.

"Alright, let's turn this up a few notches." Lux muttered, assumingly to herself. There was a loud clap of thunder that almost made the ground shake but funnily no lightning. The rain was now pouring down and nipping my face as I ran, I slowed myself down to a jog to see where I was. About two blocks from my old work. As I turned around I saw something that made me scared and relieved at the same time. A blinding flash of light came across the city as lightning struck, screams could be heard as people cowered. I was the only one standing as I watched the whole city go dark and the lightning disappear.

I smiled to myself and looked up onto the rooftops again, it was still there but this time even closer than before. I could tell it was looking down on me and an idea came to my head. I moved off the main pathway to a wall where I could stop for a while. I closed my eyes and tried to pinpoint the exact position of this person, what they might be looking at. I opened my eyes and congratulated myself as I watched the city through my follower's eyes.

Even if the city was dark, everything was so clear like I was looking through glass that had just been clean. The eyes kept trained on me for a moment longer before gazing over the chaotic city to another rooftop.

"Have you still got a visual?" The eyes asked, because the voice was so deep I assumed my follower was a guy. If not then it was a very strange sounding girl. There was a long pause while the rain poured down but soon there was a response.

"Affirmative, I've still got her." A female's voice came through his earpiece, the pair of eyes nodded before quickly coming back to me. He whipped out a gun of some kind and I was back on the ground. I shook my head and took off again, down the street that was now dark. Thunder rumbled overhead like an animal's growl, I pelted down the sidewalk with my backpack unfortunately slowing me down. I quickly glance behind me to see the shadow following me, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

The only way I could lose him was to go to a building where he can't see me. I streaking across the street, weaving through stalling traffic and ran into a massive building. The building was surprisingly warm for something without power; I rubbed my arms and wiped the droplets from my forehead. There was a flash of light from outside followed by a frighteningly close clap of thunder. I made my way through the people sheltering here and reached the wall of the building; I slid down it until I was sitting down.

I jumped as another few people came in through the doors then scanned them for any signs of a gun. Nothing, I closed my eyes and tried to think of what Grace would be doing. I opened them to see the darkness of the streets although still very clear; she kept looking around her for any sign of the watcher I had told her about. People pushed past her as she ambled around, looking very lost indeed. Finally she looked along the rooftops and that was where she spotted her watcher. She gasped and flattened herself up against the wall. She narrowed her eyes and peeped her head out so she could see her follower; it definitely wasn't the same one I had. She smiled to herself and watched as a massive pile of frypans fell on top of her follower. She laughed to herself and took off running.

The dark building zoomed back into view just as I saw someone else come into the building, lightning stuck right outside hitting a few cars waiting in traffic. The volume of the thunder was almost unbearable that it briefly drowned out the waterfall of rain that was hitting the roof. I remain still and decided to check in on Lux, I repeated the process of closing my eyes and thinking about her.

She had found a high point overlooking the city, she had her arms raised as she commanded the storm and her eyes kept darting around. She waved her wrist to the west where Nara was probably hiding and a bolt of lightning followed by a deafening clap of thunder sounded near there. She waited for a few seconds before she did it again then went back to scanning the city. I had no idea what she was doing; usually Lux would do something crazy for a reason.

Her eyes stopped on where I was assuming Grace would be, she waved her wrist and the same lightning and thunder sequence followed. Then she looked right into the heart of the city and gasped, she waved her wrists furiously and suddenly I was brought back to reality by screams and sobs. Water started filling the building as the storm, amazingly, got even worse outside. That's when I got what Lux was doing, she could see our watchers. She was trying to make them seen from the lightning, mine must be close.

I joined the crowd in making my way out of the building into the flooding street, the water wasn't very high but it was coming in fast. People were slipping everywhere and I had lost sight of my watcher. Now almost blind from the pelting rain, I ran blindly through the crowds of people that were coming out of their shelters because of flooding.

I didn't know what was happening but I found myself going towards the docks, the warehouse. The rain had easied and the thunder and lightning had almost completely disappeared, I shivered as I made my way towards the docks. But when it was within sight I turned down an alleyway, whoever was watching me might still be watching and I didn't want to lead them to the only place that is safe for now.

I watched the docks slowly become easier to see as the rain cleared and the sun rose, the pink in sky signalling that morning had come. I thought I had fallen asleep but I discovered that I was just lost in my own thoughts about different plants and their defence mechanisms. I can do that to myself, almost hypnotise myself by making some kind of scientific subject pop into my head. I could remove myself from the world and put myself in a different world of facts and experiments.

I don't particularly specialise in a certain field; I just know a wide array of things from different areas of science. Like that there is currently a meteor orbiting somewhere near us and in about twenty years or so it might collide, or something along those lines. Or that there is an earthquake happening every second but it's too soft for us to feel. Just general things.

My friends' just think I'm a little weird if I keep spitting out random facts so I keep them to myself. That brought me fully back into the real world, the thought of my friends and what they might be doing. I blinked a few times to clear my eyes and looked around at my surroundings. I had forgotten that I was in an alley and momentarily had a heart attack. I stood up and the memories of what felt like minutes ago came rushing back. I stretched and heard some bone in me crack, not painfully but with the release of the tension that had been placed on it.

I started walking towards the warehouse, of which I thought my friends might be at, and kept my eyes open for any signs of my watcher. I strolled up to the warehouse and hoped that it was some time past six o'clock at the present moment. I was pleased to see, when I walked through the door, that only four people were in there. My friends.

"Hey, where have you been?" Lux asked, her voice husky from last night. I smiled tiredly at my friends and went over to them.

"First day of training guys, we need to first sort out what we can do." Nara said firmly, jumping right into the subject.

"Well, I can make and control shock waves or just sound in general." Marlo begun, Lux was about to begin when Marlo added something else.

"There's something more I can do, I can't exactly pinpoint it right now but it almost become easier to read emotions. If you know what I'm getting at, and I can almost control them. Yeah, and I think I can bring you out of you trances Rose." Marlo looked around at everyone, possibly looking for some kind of sign from us and of course she was going to get it if she could read us like a book.

"As you guys know, I can control water and I have recently found that I can make storms." Lux said matter-of-factly, Nara pouted and Lux's gaze was directed to her.

"That's unfair, I wanna do the lightning thing and make floods and stuff." She complained making Lux grin.

"Too bad, the 'awesome powers' god chose me for this and not you." Lux retorted, rubbing it in that she had something that Nara didn't.

"Yeah, well stuff water, I can control fire and I can make fire tornadoes. Anyway, without the heating in the air, you wouldn't have had a storm to control." Nara spat, she wasn't very good at the comeback side of an argument and Lux always took advantage of it.

"Whatever, I was the one that was actually controlling the storm. Did you guys get the signals I was sending you? The lightning flashes?" Lux asked, steering the conversation slightly off topic. Everyone nodded except for Grace who shook her head.

"Always the slowest." Lux muttered under her breath, which earned her a death stare from Grace.

"Try to beat mine, I can create anything that comes to mind within almost an instant. I dropped a whole pile of frypans on top of someone." She said with pride in her voice, I couldn't help but snigger at how proud she was for doing something that was small next to Lux's stunt. But, I had to give it to her.

"But, your eyesight was the clearest out of all of us when the city went dark. How could that be?" I inquired; everyone stared at me before I continued in my explanation.

"I did one of my 'look through some ones eyes' things, and hers were the clearest." I explained, they all nodded with understanding before Marlo jumped back into the conversation.

"Maybe, you also have some kind of skill where you can adapt or learn things faster than us." She suggested but Lux scoffed at the idea.

"Grace? The queen of confusion is learning the fastest? Marlo, if you look confusion up in the dictionary you will see Grace's picture under it." Lux said, and quite shamelessly since Grace was standing right beside her. Nara giggled and Marlo tried to keep the smile off her face at Lux's smart comment.

"Then there's Rose." Grace said, trying to get the attention of her.

"Yes, you Rose, from what you've displayed have telepathy, telekinesis, can see through other people's eyes and could tear the world in half while you're sleeping." Lux said getting back to the point; we all nodded as the mystery of what powers we all had was revealed. Even though it wasn't much of a surprise in the first place.

"Well, training starts now. We need to extend this boundary that our brains are placing on us in order to take out our obstacle, in this case a highly trained team of super heroes." Nara summarised; we all smiled at each other and made a circle. As of now, we are all criminals that are going to betray the people that we had saved only days ago.

It's gonna be fun.


	12. Chapter 12

"First things first, we need some kind of way to get around." Grace said pulling away from the group and making a little strawberry tart form in her hand. She took a few bites as Marlo smiled and took a step away as well. Lux, Nara and I then went off to find our own space in the warehouse.

"No, first thing we need is to get you sorted with your own weapon. The rest of us have powers that are useful in combat. You need your own signature thing." Nara said sternly, she loved the subject of ancient weaponry and battle tactics. After all, her father was in the navy so he taught her a thing or two about war. Self defence, in particular. One summer, she taught us all the basics of self-defence then helped us with some more advanced moves.

Grace thought for a second, finishing off her tart, before her eyes brightened with an idea, she held out her right hand flat with her palm facing the ceiling. Then she brought her left hand over the other and begun waving it horizontally over her out stretched palm. Lux took a breath to make a smart remark but I gave her a glare and she stopped. She looked like she was frozen solid; I smiled to myself and turned back to Grace. Something was coming together in her palm, at first I thought it was just a stick and I think the rest of us did too.

_Really? The best thing she can think of is a stick? I mean of course her intelligence is limited, but is that really the best she can do? _Lux thought, it echoed in my head then slowly faded until it was just pure concentration on what Grace was doing.

I was starting to agree with what Lux had thought but as it became clearer, there was something else I noticed. Two curved blades, one on each end, caught my eye and that's when I realised what she was making. It was a scythe; the glint of the blades as they became solid forced me to look away. Grace then stopped waving her hand and the scythe dropped into her hand, she wrapped her fingers around the black handle and smiled.

"Wow, that looks awesome." Marlo said with amazement evident in her voice. I looked closer at the handle that connected the two blades; it had some kind of design etched onto it. I saw that it had a pattern like a vine had wrapped itself around the handle with leaves coming off it at random intervals. She had made the scythe so that the tips of the blades faced away from each other, making it look even more dangerous than it did.

I finally tore my eyes away from the weapon and brought them back to Lux who was still standing there frozen stiff. I looked at her for a moment and she unfroze instantly, she turned to glance at me and I smiled in return. There was a faint shuffle of feet and I saw Nara step into the centre of the room where she could be seen.

"Right guys, we are going to train as hard as we can for as long as we can. We're going to make our skills so sharp it will be like a sword's blade when we use them. We are going to get what we need whether we kill or not." She said forcefully, we smiled at each other. If anyone could encourage us, it would be Nara.

"Combat training first." She stated, I walked over to Marlo as Grace and Lux went with Nara. I looked her up and down then moved my eyes to where the others were talking quietly. Nara then moved away from them, without taking their eyes off each other Lux and Grace back away from each other too.

I was about to give Marlo a questioning glance when Lux threw her arms out in front of her, releasing a massive jet of water fired straight at Grace. Grace ducked and made an action like she was tossing something at Lux's feet. Marbles formed underneath Lux and she begun to slide around. She fell but before she hit the ground, she stuck out her hand to catch her and two jets of water came out of her palms. They propelled her back up onto her feet and she was ready to fight again. With her scythe in her hand, Grace made a dash for Lux who was still recovering from the surprise of almost falling over. Grace quickly whipped her blade behind Lux's knees and pulled her to the ground.

I was about to start cheering Grace on when a small shock wave narrowly missed my nose. I turned my head to look at Marlo; she was smiling mischievously and cracking her knuckles. I opened my mouth in surprise with the corners of my mouth turning up slightly in part of a smile. I turned by body around so that I was fully facing her and closed my mouth with that ghost of a smile still hovering on my lips.

"Oh, okay, so you don't have powers and you're little goody two shoes. Then you get them and you're all bad ass and stuff?" I asked her, not really expecting an answer. She shot another small shock wave as a warning.

"No, that would be you. You couldn't have been bad to save your life." She retorted, I chuckled lightly as she shot a bigger shock wave at my feet. I stepped out of its path and watched it slowly fade out. I smiled to myself and looked back at Marlo, I just caught her firing another one and had just enough time to duck under it. This meant war.

She started firing lots of little ones, following me as I tried to run from them. Since these shock waves weren't solid, I couldn't use them against her or even to protect myself by moving them away. As I ducked under yet another big shock wave coming for me, I remembered the marbles that Grace had made. I quickly checked behind to see if they were still there, and they were. I flattened my palm out and heard the marbles slowly move off the ground so that they were floating about five centimetres above. I looked back at Marlo and smiled, I stood up and the marbles flew past straight towards Marlo.

"Oh, that's just not nice." I heard her mumble as she put her hands over her head, unknowingly a shield slid up in front of her. As the marbles touched it, they shattered into millions of pieces. I narrowed my eyes at her as she curled herself and stared at the shards with a mixed expression of relief and disbelief.

With barely a moment's hesitation, she directed her attention back at me and grinned almost evilly. I glanced behind me at what else Grace could have created right then; I saw a pile of darts just behind Lux who was grappling with Grace on the ground. Again, I flattened my hand out and all of the darts floated up slightly off the ground and pointed their tips at Marlo. She stuck out her chin with the evil grin still on her face and I gave the darts the command to go, and they did. I made the darts spilt into two separate lines as they zoomed past my head towards Marlo. Marlo crossed her arms in front of her chest then spread them in front of her making a massive shock wave.

When the shock wave reached the first line, they tried to press on but they started shaking and soon they, in some way, exploded. Marlo briefly panicked when she saw the next line getting dangerously close but repeated her massive shock wave to erase them from the list of threats. There was a brief pause to catch my breath when I noticed Marlo staring at me. With her face of fierce concentration.

I blacked out and suddenly I was in some kind of shop. I looked around the shop, it was dark and damp and smelled of rotting meat. Against the opposite wall I saw some carcasses hanging on a chain, but later along the chain there were three other shapes. There was a click of a switch and three dim lights lit up over the chain conveyer belt. The chain started moving and another sound filled the air, the sound of a band saw.

The three dark shapes became clearer; they were Grace, Lux and Nara. Horror filled me as I saw that the conveyer belt was going towards the band saw. I watched, terrified as one of the carcasses got sawed in half. I tried to go to them but I was fixed to the spot. Dread swallowed me like a wave as yet another carcass was sawed in half.

I was brought back to the warehouse and fell to my knees; Marlo lost her concentration and fell backwards in surprise. I gasped for air, not being able to shake that feeling of horror as my friends got even closer to their deaths. The sound of the band saw echoed in my ears as I looked over the concrete floor to Marlo who was lying on her back. I could see a big smile plastered on her face. I noted the dull throbbing in the back of my head saying that it might be a good idea to take a break. I also then understood why Marlo was smiling; her emotional controlling powers had worked.

I sighed and forced the feeling out of my mind, but it came back. I tried to think of something else but all that was there was the image of the shop and the band saw. I took a deep breath and felt Marlo's gaze rest on me. She stared at me for a second before looking away, for the hopes of having the ability to now think what I wanted I tried to push the image away.

It worked; I could think what I wanted and not be forced to replay those horrible things in my mind. I stood up and walked towards the door, I sat down against the wall and sighed. I watched Lux and Grace finish up their battle. Lux had Grace pinned and her scythe somewhere out of reach but didn't the pile of pebbles hovering just over her head. They dropped on her head and temporarily confused her, this gave Grace a window for her to escape and get back to her feet.

Nara walked through the doorway with a box in her hands, she saw Lux laying on the ground with her head under a pile of pebbles and Grace, scythe in hand, going to strike Lux through the back. She dropped the box, which I quickly stopped, and shot a blazing fireball at Grace. She looked up, quickly dodged it and was going to attack when she realised it was Nara. I quietly put the box at Nara's feet and watched her scan the warehouse.

"Who won, Marlo?" She asked her, Marlo was still lying where she was and answered that she did. Nara nodded and took a step. She tripped over the box, the contents spilled out only making her slip around more, having to untangle the objects from her shoes. Everything went everywhere and a snigger could be heard from across the room, of course it was Lux.

That erupted into fits of laughter coming from all of us, including Nara. The day continued on, with all of us going up against each other one on one. We discovered the contents of the box were more weapons, knives, short swords, archery sets, and even battle-axes. Nara told us that Grace had prepared them earlier for us to train with if we could.

I didn't want the day to end, although I was a bit sore from getting bumped around when it came to facing Lux. Grace was a bit of a challenge from all of these random constant objects streaming down on me. Nara was too since she kept trying to burn me to a crisp. But overall, it was actually fun. We hid the weapons in some nearby bushes and went back to… Where? Where could we go after I destroyed my apartment?

Grace suggested her apartment but I still wasn't convinced that they had stopped watching it since I had last been there. Marlo then, reluctantly, led us to a hotel and paid for our rooms. Grace and Lux took one while Nara and Marlo took the other one. After an argument saying that they could work something out with my problem, I won and left without another word. I decided as I left the hotel that I would just wander around the city to keep myself awake. Or whom ever it was watching us, keeping an eye on me and leaving my friends alone in peace.

I made my way to the brightly-lit streets of the city and automatically scanned the rooftops for any sign of the people watching me from last night. I let out the breath I was holding when I saw no sign. I was about to turn around when I saw something flicker out of the corner of my eye, I thought I had missed something. I ignored it and continued walking, staying close to the walls and door if I needed to lose my follower. I eventually moved into a big fancy looking apartment building, I sat down on one of the couches in the lobby. The gigantic chandelier that hung over head actually made it easier to see because the light wasn't as blinding.

I closed my eyes and the sight through Marlo's eyes came through, she was in the hotel bedroom with Grace, Nara and Lux around her on the bed and floor. They must have all come together in the one bedroom for a little meeting. I couldn't help but notice the seriousness in the air around her.

"So, who do you think was watching us?" Nara asked, there was a pause as everyone thought about an answer.

"Spies." Lux said, certainty brimming in her voice.

"SHIELD Agents?" Nara asked herself.

"I have know idea." Grace said honestly, Lux rolled her eyes and Grace titled her head in questioning.

"You never have any idea." Lux said, Grace gave her a signature death stare and gazed out the window.

"Aliens." Marlo said finally, Lux smacked her hand on her forehead and I came back to the lobby. The chandelier sparkled above my head and I watched as a person walked through the door. Alarm bells went off in my head when I saw he was dressed completely in black. Although they were casual clothes, I didn't want to take chances so I left as indistinctly as I could. As I joined the crowd I realised that it was going to be a very long night.

I looked for the safest looking alleyway to call home for the night.


	13. Chapter 13

The next four days were about the same, training, learning, overall becoming deadly. The toughest to beat out of us was either Grace or Lux; both of them always pummelled Nara, Marlo and I. We were finally learning to control our powers, but I still had to go out every night. Marlo said that she and Lux were on to something that could help me get to sleep. Even an hour's worth would be heaven to me, but I can't risk it for now so I continued to go out. I mostly stayed around the city, keeping the attention of who ever was watching us on me and away from the others.

I decided I would do something different since going around the city each night was getting a bit boring. I would do something peaceful and quiet. Before I left for the night, I tested out my warping skills. I could make certain objects bend to make other things. We were gathered on the floor of Marlo and Nara's hotel room, doing our own things. A glass cup was sitting in front of me; Lux and I were staring at it.

"Alright, try me." I said to her, she narrowed her eyes at the glass and it slowly begun to lose its shape. It was melting and didn't stop until it was a blob of liquid glass on the carpet. Lux had found that she could not only make things turn to water, but to a liquid substance as well.

I made the glass float a little way of the floor so that it was at eye level. Then I got to work, making it twist and turn into what I desired. It was still wavering when I was done but Lux soon made that stop when she made it solid. It dropped into my waiting, outstretched palm and we smiled at each other, beaming at the glass flute that we had just made. I nodded to my friends, stood up and grabbed my cardigan. I pulled it on and shoved the flute into one of the pockets, which were surprisingly deep.

"Where are you going to play?" Marlo asked as I headed for the door. I shrugged my response.

"In the park? No one could hear you there." Nara suggested but before I got the chance to reply, Lux jumped in.

"No, knowing Rose she would play somewhere a little more creative than that." I nodded to Lux to say that she was right. I wasn't going to play in the park but I was going to stop there on the way. I left silently and made my way out of the hotel, leaving my friends to sleep peacefully for another night.

I slowly walked to the park that I seemed to go to often, sighing at the peaceful, empty place. I smiled at myself as I slid my hands in my pockets and ran my thumb up and down my smooth glass flute. A few loose leaves fell, when the moon shone on them it looked like it was raining silver. I could only tell I was staying to the path from the very faint glow it was giving as I walked.

The trees on either side of me threw dark shadows across my path giving the illusion that I was in a forest. The air tasted sweet from the pollen floating from the flowers that I would pass by. My shoes made barely a sound as I moved silently around the park. I tilted my head slightly to the sky to see an array of stars and satellites beaming down on me. It was sad that there was barely a noticeable difference between satellites and stars, I always told myself when I looked up at them the satellites were just trying to be like stars. Beautiful, natural wonders that light up the night sky and make pictures if you look close enough.

I decided that I would find a seat and admire this scene some more, somewhere where no one would be able to see me. I saw a big patch of grass with the ghost of an outline on it. A bench, possibly. I strolled over to it and sat down, closing my eyes I focused on the sounds around me. The whisper of a breeze as it weaved through the branches of the trees around me, insects softly chirping to one another, my breathing low and calm.

"Really? Over nine thousand benches and you choose this one?" My heart stopped when I heard a voice come from beside me. I opened one eye and checked for some sign of life next to me. No one, not even a faint reflection. I closed my eye and let my heart start again.

I was about to laugh at myself when there was a soft chuckle from beside me, this time I opened both eyes and turned my head towards the sound. I narrowed my eyes, searching for the maker of the sound but again found nothing. I bit my lip and, unconsciously, twirled my emerald pendant around my finger.

"Yes, I am actually here. If that's what you're wondering." I couldn't help but jump as the mystery voice appeared again.

"Alright, then why can't I see you?" I asked shakily.

"Because the shadows don't allow you to." The voice returned, that sounded a bit cliché. Lux probably put someone up to it and is just trying to scare me for fun. I cross my arms over my chest and relaxed my shoulders.

"So you must be some kind of killer? If the shadows aren't allowing me to see you." I said coolly, I shifted so that I was staring at the night sky again.

"Why do you assume that?" I determined the voice was male, he sounded smart but actors could sound like anyone.

"Because usually assassins stick to the shadows and keep to dark places." I replied, the breeze picked up slightly and blew my fringe into my face.

"I guess you could say I kill." He said, answering my previous question. Lux had hired someone good, I honestly didn't think this guy would go along with it.

"Okay, then what type of killer? Mass murderer? Serial Killer? Oh, Visionary maybe?" I inquired thinking that he might give up soon, possibly leave.

"It depends." Was his reply, simple and quiet like he wasn't very proud.

"Depends on what?" I questioned further, knowing that who ever the person was wasn't going to hurt me. Unless he was telling the truth.

"Depends on who's around at the time." Another short answer, Lux was going to get it when I got back.

"Right, that makes very little sense." I commented because it really did make very little sense to me.

"You don't need to know the details." He said darkly, that scared me. But I reminded myself that he was probably just one of Lux's friends and she was pulling a prank on me.

"That's right, don't give away the details of the plan in case someone might report you. Suss you out." I said with a hint of sarcasm, a short, soft laugh came from the person beside me.

"Do you go around to everyone you meet and ask if they're serial killers?" He asked, trying to lighten the conversation.

"No, only people I can't see." I replied smartly, I smiled at the sky that was still littered with stars. I felt like we were underneath a veil of shadow that no one could see into but we could see out of. Who ever 'we' was.

I unfolded my arms and let my right hand rest on my flute, reminding me of what I had come out to do. I rubbed my thumb up and down my flute before putting both hands in my lap. I sighed and felt my eyes drooping; I blinked a few times before widening them in surprise. I didn't know how much more I could take of this. I was drinking six cups of coffee a day at least. I would do things like stick my hands in boiling water to keep myself awake. I didn't want whatever happened last time to happen again.

"Never, in my life, has this happened to me," He muttered quietly, I was assuming to himself. "and trust me, a lot has happened." He added, symbolising that he was talking to me.

"No, I never sat down at a bench before to have a mysterious voice talking to me so consider us both even with surprises." I returned in the same mutter. Even if this wasn't part of a prank, this was a complete stranger that I was almost certain never to see again. I didn't know his name, he didn't know mine, we knew nothing about each other.

"I guess we are." He said quietly, when the pause settled over us I couldn't help but feel my hand go back up to my pendant and start fiddling with it again. I always did this when I was nervous or bored; it was a natural thing. Since I wasn't going to see this guy again, I decided to try and see what he was thinking. My fingers wrapped protectively around my pendent and I focused on the thoughts of the person beside me.

Waves, that was the first thing I heard. Not the calm ones that you would usually think of but these were raging, crashing waves. But that wasn't it, they weren't waves. There was something that I couldn't put my finger on. Thunder was the next sound that popped into my mind, big, loud claps of it. This person had a monsoon in his head, no wonder he was a murderer.

"Why haven't you left yet?" Was the question that brought me out of his thoughts to the real world.

"What?" I asked, half listening to what he was saying.

"Not meaning in any way to be rude, but I've just told you I'm a serial killer. Some one who kills people. Why aren't you running away?" He asked with curiosity brimming in his voice. I could understand why he was asking this and I was asking my sensible self that at the same time. I didn't want to tell him that at first I thought my friend had set me up for a prank and now I thought I should just talk to a random stranger. So I made something up that wasn't completely false.

"You don't sound at all threatening, you're too quiet to be a killer. I think you would have already done the job if you were one, anyway." I explained and it was true, he wasn't very proud of what he had done and was terribly quiet for someone who could be boasting about how he had done it and how many he had killed.

"You must be a fugitive then, hmm?" I asked as the thought came to me, he had to be unless he was a very dumb serial killer and didn't run. That, I highly doubted at this point.

"Again with the assumptions. But yes you are right." He answered quickly.

"It's simply the ability to deduce people, although it does mean that assumptions have to be made. But that is a way to gain information." I corrected; another soft chuckle came from the voice beside me. I felt my eyes closing and my head falling onto the back of the seat. I sat up and opened my eyes wide, I had to get away from this guy before I fell asleep and hurt him.

"Anyway, I have to go. Things to do, people to see kind of thing." I added, I got up and without even a glance beside me I walked off. I walked swiftly away from the bench and soon made my way out of the park in the direction I wanted to go, the Empire State Building.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and the people push me as I continued on my way to the tower. I took deep breaths and kept my eyes on the ground since I didn't really need to know where to go, it was just a matter of getting there. I would look up only occasionally to get an idea of where to go next. I was only a few yards away when someone rammed into me, making me smack into a wall. I was sure to get a bruise from that, and not even as much as a mutter came from the person who did.

I looked behind me to see if there was any acknowledgment at all but the person had gone. I could feel something at the back of my mind urging me to go after whoever it was and make them apologise. I decided against it and told the urge that whoever it was, wasn't worth the trouble. I tugged at the sleeves of my cardigan and continued walking, this time it was more like a jog than a walk. Once I reached the building, I went around to the back alleyway and looked up the building.

It was a strange thing to do, but I had always wanted to do it and now I had the chance to. But how could I get up to the top without being noticed? I looked around at my surroundings, then looked at my flute. I held the flute above my head then looked right up to the spike that sat perch atop the building. I tightened my grip on the flute then closed my eyes.

_Up_, I commanded in my head and soon enough I felt the flute begin to rise. I felt my feet slowly leave the ground beneath me and my cardigan flutter ever so slightly around my waist. I clenched my other free hand into a fist and the flute begun to rocket towards the top. I opened my eyes and looked up but had to squint from the wind blowing into my face. I slowly released the fist the closer my flute and I got to the spike. Soon it was just a flat palm and my flute and I were hovering just above the spike. I gingerly put the ball of my foot down on the spike and smiled, it was time.

I put my foot on the side of my knee so if you saw me from the front I made a triangle with my legs. I slowly made the flute lower so that it was just in front of my lips but still held me up. I prepared my fingers and looked down upon the city that never slept, it was so much more peaceful from up here. I played the first note of my song that I had wanted to play, the song that I had heard in my dream when I made us homeless.

I was going to play the city that never slept, to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

I came home in the morning to; I wouldn't say a surprising sight but an unusual one to come back to. There were books and pens laying everywhere, Lux had fallen asleep with her head still on the page of one of the open notebooks. Nara was curled up in the bed with her feet dangling out from under the covers; Marlo was slumped against the wall with an earphone still in her ear and her iPod sitting in the palm of her hand. Then I saw Grace, she was lying on the carpet near Marlo's feet with her limbs splayed everywhere. Her purple, bob cut hair was all over her face so she looked like a dark purple mop that had a broken handle.

I was about to take a step when I saw Marlo's fingers twitching, she yawned and I froze in mid step. The grip on her iPod tightened as she raised both her hands above her head to stretch. Her spare hand rubbed her eye as the other lowered back down to her lap. She opened her eyes when she took her hand away from her face and yawned again. Her green eyes searched the room until they found me, frozen just inside the doorway.

"Oh, hi Rose." She said casually, I smiled at her and walked to her side. I helped her onto her feet then looked around the room in question.

"Lux had made up a betting scheme for when we go to get the files." Marlo said, motioning with her head to the mess of books. She picked up a book that was lying half-open on the bed that Nara was sleeping on.

"We have forty dollars on there being five of them, forty on there being four. Nara bet thirty you would get into the tower without being spotted, Lux and Grace bet twenty each you would get spotted by at most three of the Avengers. Lux bet Grace ten dollars she would be the first one down and Grace bet Lux ten she would be the first down. I bet twenty on Nara being the first to kill someone, Avenger or otherwise, Grace bet twenty you would be the first to kill and Lux bet forty I would kill first. I think that's it…" She said as she finished the page, I laughed at the thought of them all trying to bet on different things about our plan. She held up her finger for me to wait.

"We also, just out of curiosity, bet if someone had to sacrifice themselves to save the team, either in death or capture, that…" She paused and sighed. "this one's a bit complicated…" She muttered to herself. "That I bet forty on you for sacrifice, Lux bet twenty, no thirty, on Grace, Nara bet twenty on Lux, then Lux bet fifty that you would be captured, just to make it more interesting. Then I clarified that my bet was for you getting captured too so Lux said that she bet another fifty on who would take you down, she said the demi god. I said…" She paused again while she skimmed over this terribly confusing betting scheme.

"…Captain America and another forty to seal it. So from that sacrificial bet alone, Lux is betting one hundred dollars for you to get captured by Blondie while I bet eighty dollars on you getting captured by a super solider." She looked up at me with pride in her eyes, being able to recall all of that. I opened my mouth to speak but she held up her finger again for me to wait, she flicked through the pages of the book until she was almost at the end.

"We also have bets on what the others would do." She said, sitting down on the carpet. I sat down next to her and sighed, you could tell that they didn't have a lot to do last night.

"Nara bet twenty first arrived would be Iron Man, Lux bet twenty both assassins but I told her she couldn't do that so she went with the archer, Grace bet ten that super solider would be there first. Lux bet thirty the first punch would be by Iron Man, Grace bet another ten on the same guy for the first punch. Nara bet forty dollars that there would be an insult fight between Iron Man and Lux. Grace bet twenty that Lux would try to drown some one, whereas I bet twenty that Nara would try to set some one on fire." She paused to take a few deep breaths and flick over to the next page. She laughed softly at what she saw, being careful not to wake the others.

"Then Grace bet another twenty that Lux would try to drown Iron Man, poor him was getting picked on all last night while we thought of what different ways of torture we would use on him. I bet another twenty that Nara would try to burn Blondie, and for another ten I added by his hair." I sniggered at the thought of Nara trying to burn some ones hair off, she loves her hair and I don't think she would intend to mess up anyone else's.

"Is that it?" I asked quietly, upon seeing Nara twitch slightly in her bed. Marlo shook her head and threw the book over her shoulder; it smacked against the wall then fluttered down to the floor. She reached for another book and begun skimming through it, she stopped somewhere near the front. I groaned as I prepared myself for another list of bets but was surprised by something else.

"Every night you have gone out this week we have done something, I'm gonna say productive. First night, made an order to some of Nara's friends for some equipment that we will need. We couldn't rely on Grace because she would make, for example, the hard drive hollow and wouldn't know what to put into it." I nodded at what she said because it was true, although Grace had to be easily the most creative out of us, she didn't know a lot about the intricate details of technology.

"Second night, we drew up plans to make the warehouse more of a HQ rather than a big open space." Marlo said as she handed me the plans that they had drawn up.

"Third night, we made up a more detailed version of the plan and last night Lux and I had planned our way to make you sleep." I smiled and shook my head, thinking that she was joking with the last bit. But I saw the truth in her eyes, she was serious. I swung my head around to see Lux sit up and look around the room dazed. Her eyes rested on me and she grinned, she shifted herself so that she could see me properly.

"Can I safely say that you have been updated?" She asked, slurring slightly because she was still waking up. Both Marlo and I nodded, Lux then jumped to her feet and quickly pull me to mine. My head spun and I tried to refocus as Lux pulled Marlo to her feet.

"Right then, let's get you some sleep." She said upon seeing my confused expression, Marlo and Lux started off towards the door. We all exited the room with Lux and Marlo on either side of me. Marlo looked at me and I couldn't hide my worry quick enough because she sighed.

"We know what we're doing. We're not idiots." She reassured, Lux nodded in confirmation but it didn't give me any more reassurance. I started to thread my emerald pendant through my fingers and Marlo stopped walking. She stared at me for a moment before crossing her arms over her chest.

_If you don't stop being depressing right now, I will make you so happy people will think you're on something. _She threatened me, my eyes widened and I shook my head.

_You wouldn't dare! _I sent to her, she raised an eyebrow at me.

_Watch me. _I could feel the threat in her thoughts; I took a step away from her and shook my head again. She nodded and I could feel her inside my head, but it wasn't in terms of thoughts. It was the part that almost everyone was vulnerable to, their feelings. A smile slowly stretched across her face as I continued to glare at her. Then, it was like a switch had been flicked and I knew what had happened.

My shoulders relaxed and a smile came across my face, blinked a few times and glanced from Lux to Marlo and back to Lux. I tried to stomp over to Marlo's side but it was more of a skip, a very merry skip. Lux laughed as she watched my go to my friend's side, I wanted to groan but instead it was a giggle. I raised my hand to clip Marlo on the back of the head but slung it over her shoulder in a well natured hug.

She nodded at her handy work and together we went out of the hotel, as soon as we set foot outside I tried my luck at getting her out of my head. Though it was hard to do when your thoughts were about beautiful desserts and long dresses. I hate dresses. Instead of walking, I would skip occasionally skipping around Lux or Marlo like a little girl. I thought I might have broken my way through her power when she turned her gaze to me and smiled.

_Trying to get rid of me, are you? _Her thought echoed, because I was in front of her I ran at her to tackle her to the ground but instead I threw myself onto her in a hug. I heard Lux burst out in fits of laughter as I tried with all my will to untangle my arms from around her but they wouldn't come. She was going to get it from me when we trained, and get it hard. I eventually made my arms to come back to their sides and instead of a scowl, a smile popped onto my face. Marlo sniggered at my efforts to regain control of my emotions and we continued walking.

Now she was making me whistle as I skipped along in front of them, which made me feel even stupider. I would throw my hand up above my head and wave them about like seaweed being blown around in the current of the sea. It was even worse when the warehouse came into view, I think Marlo switched me into overdrive or something because it was weird.

I briefly stopped in my tracks to look at the warehouse for a second, then I started spinning and jumping on the spot. I started laughing and pointing at it then before I knew it I was sprinting towards it screaming excitedly at the top of my lungs. When I reached the door, Marlo let me snap out of it and I crumpled to the dirt in exhaustion. I watched as Lux and Marlo came to join me and sighed at their arrival.

"I am going to kill you, Marlo." I threatened half-heartedly; I noticed Lux holding her phone and groaned. She slipped it back into her pocket and helped me up.

"Now we have evidence of Rose having a complete spasm over a building." She said with pride obvious in her voice. I was generally not one to show emotion or affection, or any kind of feelings that were in anyway good. I have been in love, never been interesting and lived my boring life of strange science facts with either family or the closest of friends. I shook my head and looked expectantly at Marlo, she looked at Lux and Lux looked at me.

"Okay, we're gonna put you to sleep and we're gonna do it so that you don't kill anybody." Lux said slowly, that didn't make me feel very safe at all. Marlo nudged Lux in the side and smiled at me.

"Lux is going to put a veal of water around you and I'm basically going to give you a dream if you start to get restless. So get comfy and we'll get started." She made the whole thing sound a lot better, even if she did just toy with my emotions.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, but not wanting to miss the show I moved to Lux's eyes. Lux held out her hand and water shot out from the nearby sea, she moved both hands around in front of her like she was shaping the water to fit around me. Soon, there was a visibly thin layer of water around me, no thicker than a piece of cardboard. From there she lifted my up so that it looked like I was in a bubble, I was amazed at how I didn't fall out when I started floating. She moved me until I was over the water then she begun to slowly lower me beneath the waves.

I could see the edges of Lux's vision going blurry, but I couldn't tell if it was her or I that had the blur. Lux blinked and I could feel the concentration intensify which made the edges even blurrier. Lux held her hands out in front of her for another moment before putting them down by her sides. Marlo then stepped into the corner of Lux's view and stared at the spot where I had disappeared.

I made myself come back to my own vision and stared at the bubble I was in; all around me outside the bubble was deep blue sea. I was on the bottom on a bed of partially wet sand, but for now it felt like a bed of feathers. There was no pressure pounding in my ears even though, judging by the colour of the water, that I would be quite a way out on the bottom of the ocean.

I made myself lay down on the sand and close my eyes; I wasn't sure how I was going to get oxygen within this bubble but for now sleep was coming for me. And no sooner than I had closed my eyes had my unconsciousness slipped in, forcing me into the land of dreams. Or darkness, whichever it was I didn't care. Even though I couldn't properly think or feel anything, I think I enjoyed the solitude. The loneliness that the bottom of the see provided. Although, I don't think the people of the Titanic thought that when they went to the bottom of the sea.

That brought on my first of a long chain of dreams, I was on the Titanic. I could tell it was because of how old yet high class everything looked. Then the sea started rocking beneath me and before I knew it I was back on dry land. I was in a rainforest with tall trees and the smell of the leaf litter beneath my feet. There was a loud screech from above and I took off running. But no sooner had I started running, I had run out onto the middle of a street. It was dark and the street lamps were on, I looked around me at the new setting. It was suburbia, so there were houses on either side of the street. I jumped to the side of the road when I car came zooming past me, I looked across from me and saw a figure standing under the light of one of the streetlights.

I automatically felt the need to run, and I did, but it felt like I was running in tar rather than on flat ground. I decided I would run to the nearest house and try to hide there, I craned my neck to look behind me and gasped. Not only had the person moved closer but also two others were with it. I tried to get my feet out of the substance that was preventing me from running faster but it was no use. As I slowly made my way up to the door of the house I recognised it as my sister's friends house.

I pushed open the door and saw my mum and my sister's friends dad talking together. I pulled myself from the path into the house and ran past them into the kitchen and hid behind the counter. There was a window I could see out of that was next to the door, and just out side I could see the figure. But there were many more than just three, there was about three thousand of the figures that I couldn't see. There was a knock on the door and I lowered behind the counter until it was just my eyes peeping over. My mum went to the door and I silently screamed at her not to, she turned the knob and opened the door. A face that I had hoped I would never see again was standing there staring directly at me. My dad's. From before I was born he would go away to work in the mines, one week he would go away the next he would come back home. Except when he came home he would ignore my sister and I, go for drink at the pub or work on the computer.

It wasn't until about grade seven that my mum left my dad, he got a girlfriend and became two-faced which confused my sister a lot. He was even worse off then, even angrier and he would call us things like dumb and stupid like we had to go through all of school again. He would tell us that he couldn't afford something when he earned more than my mum could ever hope for, in a week. I mean, he wasn't as bad as some other fathers might be but he wasn't someone that I loved any more. Not after he hit my sister, she forgave him but I'm one to hold a grudge. The girlfriend eventually dumped him and he tried to get back with my mum. I couldn't look at him the same way.

I felt a shiver go down my spine as I thought of all the things he had done and, unfortunately, how alike we are. Although I didn't have his short temper and lack of patience, I had his tendency to try to prove people wrong and a physical trait that a lot of people have commented on. His eyes, a calm blue and don't display many emotions.

I snapped back to the dream at hand as he stepped into the room. I felt a violent tug as the back of my head then the sensation as if it were burning. I gripped the back of my head as the pain circulated around my head. I tried to curl myself into a little ball as my dad came closer but there was nowhere to hide. The clones all followed him in and swarmed around him as he made his way. There was something flickering in the corner of my eye, I twisted my aching head around to see it. The pain was get even worse as I looked around and as I was about to give up, a flickering picture of Marlo showed up.

It was like she was a faulty hologram, she could move as far as I knew. The flickering picture opened her mouth, just like the last time she was in a dream and called.

"Wake up! I know you don't really want to but-" The holographic Marlo didn't even finish her sentence before I snapped awake. I wanted to be out of there as quickly as possible. Though the pain wasn't part of the dream, it was real. My hand went to my neck as I tried to rub out the pain inside my head. I took my hand away when it was just a dull throb and made a mental note to get some pain killers when I surfaced.

I was about to stretch when I remembered I was in a bubble deep in the sea, I looked around me and expected to see calm blue water. But was surprised with grey sea threatening to burst the safety of my bubble and drown me. I was suddenly yanked from my place on the seabed and watched the water grow lighter the closer I got to the surface. But it wasn't much different from the depths; the light wasn't as strong as when I had first gone down there.

The bubble burst through the surface and I was met with a dark night sky and stormy waves. The clouds above were moving off and the once raging waves were calming, I looked around me and saw in the distance the warehouses. My bubble jolted forwards and sped towards the land I knew. I quickly saw the silhouettes of my friends standing there to greet me. Soon the bubble briefly hovered over the land before it popped, leaving me to fall to the ground on my hands and knees.

Someone was gasping for air, brushed my fringe from my eyes and looked for the person. It was Lux; Grace supported her as she half fell half collapsed onto the gravel at her feet. I rushed over to her and she smiled warily up at me, I quickly checked that both Nara and Marlo were there as well and they were. I stood up and backed a little away from Lux and watched her dive in and out of consciousness.

"What's going on?" I asked as I went to stand beside Marlo, she looked me up and down then smiled.

"It got a little out of hand. I tried to calm you down but it isn't emotion that makes you uncontrollable, for some reason it's the general fact that you're unconscious." Marlo explained, I shook my head and saw Grace materialise a pillow and put it under Lux's head.

"So basically, if my brain is a machine I have control of it while I'm awake and when I'm asleep or knocked out or something then it switches to a more violent autopilot?" I asked, Marlo nodded and I sighed.

"We had to get Grace and Nara out here to help keep Lux standing, not wanting to make you feel bad or anything." Marlo said sympathetically. Nara, Marlo and I knelt down by Lux and watched as she slowly recovered.

"No, don't feel bad. Think of it as endurance training for me." Lux said groggily, I laughed softly and nodded. I guess that would be one good thing.

"Well, tomorrow's the last day of training for us before it's time." Nara said, who was keeping quiet most of that time. Everyone nodded except for Grace who glanced at her watch.

"Technically it is tomorrow." She stated, we all smiled at her and sat with Lux to watch the sun rise upon the last day of being unknown.

* * *

A/N: Hi! This is my first time actually writing one of these (it took me a while to figure out what an A/N was, yes I am a noob at this) So sorry if I'm getting things wrong and if I am could you tell me in a review. Sorry if this chapters a bit long I just needed to get some info out there and if I didn't in this chapter the story would never end. Please review! See ya soon!


	15. Chapter 15

I sighed as the sun rose over the horizon, of course that wasn't technically true to see the sun rise but it was close enough. Once it was around six thirty, we helped each other onto our feet and walked to the closest diner to get some breakfast. When we reached it we found a table, sat down and ordered. As per usual, Grace ordered the largest meal of us all, she had, I didn't even know what it was. I ordered simple scrambled eggs on toast with a glass of orange juice, Nara ordered a salad, Marlo had a mini pizza (trust her to order the strangest thing on the menu) and Lux and a fried egg and some bacon.

When our meals came we ate and had a hushed conversation about what we were going to do today. Lux was going to try and wipe any other bits of information about us and get started with hacking Jarvis' more simpler defences so that it wouldn't take too long to get through the harder stuff tomorrow. Nara was going to train with me while Marlo and Grace were going to go out and finalise positions for the plan tomorrow. After all that, Nara and I were going to make up an obstacle course for us to run through that involved teamwork and using our individual skills.

Grace finished first closely followed by Marlo; they left together with excited smiles on their faces. Lux, Nara and I all finished at around the same time so we all left at the same time. Nara and I watched Lux leave to find a computer she could use to get hacking. We walked back to the warehouse and begun training, occasionally throwing around ideas for the obstacle course while we fought. Then a thought hit me as one of Nara's fireballs narrowly missed my arm.

"Nara? What is the plan?" I asked, making a knife float just above the ground before sending it straight towards her shoulder. She dodged the knife and grabbed a spear; flames engulfed it as she hurled it towards me. I made it stop right in front of me and drop to the ground.

"Okay, Lux is going to make the distraction. You know make cars slip around or something along those lines. Marlo, Grace and I will be hiding somewhere nearby in an alley so that when the Avengers get there, we hope they'll be surprised. You will be closest to the tower; you can only make a few moves." She explained quickly, she ran at me and threw a punch. I blocked her and pushed her backwards, she dodged the crate I made fly at her. She picked up the shattered pieces of wood and set them on fire. She threw them at me, I made a few stop in their track and dodged others but occasionally one would scrape my skin, burning me.

"Lux would have hacked into Jarvis by then but apparently it's on a timer to prevent suspicion. You would have ten minutes to get in, get the files and get out from the start of the whole operation. So when Grace is closest to your position, you take that as the signal and you go. We will keep them busy, you need to tell us when you are coming in and going out we'll keep them busiest at those points." She continued, I nodded and dodged another three fireballs aimed straight for my head. One was so close, I could feel the heat from it brush past my cheek.

"When you have the files we will split, you give them to Lux she'll go to a nearby diner where some disguises are hidden in the women's bathroom. We have wigs, dresses, hats, everything that we'll need to disappear. She'll be the first to go in followed by whoever is closest next. We just need Lux to be as far away as possible with the files. That's it, then we've got the files." She finished, it sounded foolproof, I was just hoping it would work. The rest of the day was very busy with the coming and going of Marlo and Grace, the construction of the obstacle course and the occasional appearance of Lux.

Overall, that had to be the most productive day that I had had for a long time. We came together at the end of the day to do the obstacle course Nara and I had made, there were spinning barrels with spikes on them, swinging knifes because we couldn't find blades, flamethrowers and heaps of other deadly things. Lux made Grace go first because she looked the most scared by it, but unknowingly when Lux pushed her into the obstacle course Grace grabbed her wrist and dragged Lux with her. We didn't question it; after all it was about teamwork.

When everyone went through the obstacle course, we packed up and hid the weapons. I didn't really feel like leaving for the night, the warehouse had become our home. The place where we came together and organised things, the place where plans worked. While everyone walked to the door, I lingered for a little while. Looking around at the empty space that we had made a training area, a hang out, a home. Some of the walls might be cracking and there was always a distinct smell of fish, but I didn't care.

"Hey, come on Rose. Let's go." Grace called from the doorway, I ran to meet my friends and together we walked back to the hotel room. I decided I would stay with them tonight, instead of going out. When we were all inside Grace and Lux's room, we all got ourselves comfy and Lux struck up a conversation.

"So, it hasn't truly been answered who was watching us." She began with fake seriousness. Marlo turned her eyes over to Lux, Nara smiled to herself, Grace groaned and I brushed my fringe out of my eyes.

"I'm telling you guys, it's aliens!" Marlo exclaimed, we all groaned at that comment.

"No, no Marlo. We have already been over this, aliens are not watching us." Nara said firmly.

"You know only an alien would say that." Marlo said dramatically, we all gasped and Nara went a little red.

"But we saw who it was watching us, it was the guys from Shield!" Nara objected with desperation in her voice. This conversation went on and on until Grace feel asleep right next to me, the conversation then went to how they were all going to go tomorrow. I mean, who wouldn't be nervous we were practically stealing from the government.

This topic continued as Nara soon dosed off, leaving just Marlo, Lux and I left awake. I moved into the corner and listen to the conversation, watching the last remnants of natural light file out of the room. I saw the flute I had made two days ago on the bedside table, I made it float over to me and glide down into the palm of my hand. I put it to my lips and softly began to blow a tune; it wasn't the one that I had play recently but I different one.

This one was happier; it sounded like the peacefulness of a field in spring. A breeze lazily blows across the blades of grass. It was kind of heroic at the same time, the occasional rise and fall of the notes. I played as Lux and Marlo finished their conversation and they too went to sleep.

I stood up and stretched, I looked around at my friends still sleeping and smiled to myself. The grey dawn light was only just seeping into the room. This was it, today was the day. I carefully made my way to the bathroom to take a shower and brush my hair. I sighed in contempt as the water washed away all of the dirt that had accumulated. When I was done and my hair was brushed and put into a braid down my back, I dried off and put on some clothes. Black shorts and a green singlet, I made sure I had my pendant around my neck before I threw on my cardigan.

I saw long, burgundy hair slither around its owner as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, Lux looked me up and down then stood up. She smiled at me then stumbled past me into the bathroom. I went to sit back in my corner and hold the flute in the palm of my hand. I listened to the shower turn on and eventually turn off as Lux cleaned herself up, just as the shower clicked off though, Marlo begun to stir. She squirmed around a little before dragging herself up into a sitting position. We both looked over to the bathroom door as Lux came out with her burgundy hair flowing down her shoulders. She had a blue T-shirt on and denim jeans, I looked at her questioningly.

"Well, if I'm going to be seen I may as well look good." She explained, striking a pose at the end of her sentence. I rolled my eyes and watched as Lux and Marlo traded places. Marlo came out with a pair of denim shorts on, a white singlet with a light yellow cotton shirt on. Her dark brown hair was thrown up into a bun on the side of her head.

When Nara was awake and clean, she came out in a red shirt with elbow length sleeves and denim jeans that looked very similar to the ones Lux was wearing. She had put her blonde hair into her original one plait either side of her head style. Finally, when Grace woke up and cleaned up she came out in a pink T-shirt with a teddy bear on it and denim light blue shorts with Mickey Mouse on the side. Her purple, shoulder length hair was out and just brushing her shoulders.

"You know, we would look like a force to be reckoned with if we didn't have little Miss Disney Princess here." Lux said, motion towards Grace who looked around the room. She realised that Lux was talking about her and slapped her on the arm.

"Well, let's get some breakfast and set up." Nara said, we all looked at each other. Nervousness was displayed in Grace's light blue eyes, whereas Lux's dark brown ones had excitement brimming. We were about to go out when Lux pulled us all back into the room, she pulled five black earpieces out of her backpack and handed one each to us.

"Guys, this is how we're going to stay in touch. These are quite strong so don't worry about breaking them. But if any of us are captured, Grace, there is a switch just above the hook that hooks into your ear. Switch that and the defences automatically drop so you can destroy it quite easily. Just don't let the other guys get it, please." Lux explained quickly as we all fitted them into our ears. Without another word, we forwarded out of the room. Marlo handed in their keys to both rooms and we went to find some breakfast. We went to the same diner and ordered basically the same things as yesterday but Grace ordered something a lot smaller this time around.

When breakfast was over we went over the plan one more time before heading out and splitting up. I had to get to a the base of a hotel near Stark Tower and wait there for any sign that the fight had started. We agreed that we would keep the fight within three blocks all ways to minimise destruction, after all we weren't here to take out the population. Just to get some files, and to make us known. The person closest to my position was Marlo, being only just around the corner from me. We walked together, butterflies in our stomachs.

"Do you remember the betting scheme?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. Marlo snickered and nodded, I sighed and started twirling my pendant my fingers. We came to the street where we had to leave each other, nervousness; excitement and worry were all evident in Marlo's green eyes as she left.

I continued along my path to the base of the hotel I was told to wait at, casually I leaned up against wall and gazed up at the sparkling Stark Tower. Some of the letters were still missing from the… What did the call it? Global catastrophe? But that was months ago, most of the city looked normal again. But I don't think the people felt normal again yet, I my friends and I came here from Australia. It was just a few weeks after the attack of, whatever those things were. And even though we had only been living there for about half a week, we helped with the clean up in any way possible.

My thoughts were interrupted by a familiar tune being whistled through the earpiece, the tune that I had played the night I went to the park. I listened to the clear notes being whistled and wondered which one of them it was whistling. I couldn't tell, plus I had never played that tune to anyone of my friends. When the song finished, there was a pause, complete silence.

"Who was that?" Grace asked, breaking the silence.

"It was me." Came Marlo's voice, I stared at a point in the distance and focused on the conversation happening in my ear.

"How do you know that song?" I asked quietly.

"You were playing it a couple of nights ago." Was her reply, she sounded a little confused at this point, as was I.

"Then how come I didn't hear it." Lux piped up, I knew it was only a matter of time before she would come in.

"Yeah, I was on top of the Empire State building. How could you have heard it?" I asked, keeping the same volume. There was silence for a while and I thought that Lux's earpieces had stopped working.

"You went to the Empire State building?" Came Lux's answer, I sighed and waited for Marlo's reply.

"I don't know, I just remember hearing it on that night that you went. It's a really pretty song." She replied, I was about to give her my thanks when there was a soft scream. I looked around but no one was in trouble, then I realised it must have been one of them.

"Um… Who are you?" Came Nara's shaking voice, I gasped and closed my eyes. I quickly thought about where she was, she was in the alley way east of Lux's position. I opened my eyes to find myself with her vision; two men clad in black carrying two guns stood just a few metres away from her. They grinned at Nara who fiddled with her sleeves. They took a few steps towards her, her eyes widened.

"Stay back, I'm warning you." She said with a little more certainty in her voice. The two men took another few steps towards her and she put her hand behind her back. Flames softly crackled to life within her palm and she took a step away.

"Last warning." She said firmly, the two men laughed and with that she was upon them. With the flames in her hand, she punched the first guy in the jaw and he fell to the ground. She took the gun straight from his hands and shot him twice through the head. She quickly dropped the gun as the other guy started to aim for her, she set her hand on fire again, side stepped around him, latched onto his back and grabbed his throat. He began to choke, with the added pain of the flames. As he raised his gun up to shoot her, she kicked it from his hand and dug her nails into his flesh.

He began clawing at her hand but every time her touched her, he burned himself even more. He fell to his knees and to finish him off, she set her other hand on fire and wrapped around his neck. The pain looked unbearable, she made it look even worse when her flames turned blue. Finally, he dropped onto his chest and his heart stopped, Nara pushed herself off of him. She looked from one man to the other gasped and said

"Sorry!"


	16. Chapter 16

I sighed with relief as my vision returned to my own, she was all right. I listened back into the conversation in the earpiece.

"Okay, final check. Now we need to have codenames, okay, so give me your codename and the status of your position." Lux commanded.

"Okay, Ember is a go." Nara reported sounding a little distracted.

"Shock is good to go." Marlo answered.

"Mindshift is ready." I added, there was a murmur from someone.

"That name is a bit long, could you shorten it?" Lux asked, almost whining.

"I like it, it's creative." Nara said, jumping to my defence.

"Why not something like… Freak! Hey that sounds cool, you can be Freak!" Lux exclaimed, trust her to come up with weird names.

"Keep with Mindshift for now." Marlo said, getting annoyed by the delay.

"Okay, last one? Where's Disney Princess?" Lux called into the comm device.

"Genie is all good." Grace reported, sounding not very amused by the insult directed at her.

"Alright, Hydro is in position. Let's get this show on the road." Lux finally finished the test. There was a pause, silence throughout the comms as we waited for Lux to start off the opening act. I wasn't even paying attention to the background noise around me; I was that intent on hearing what was coming next.

"Oh, and by the way," Marlo whispered. "Grace and Lux, sorry, Genie and Hydro both owe me twenty for me guessing Nara having the first kill."

As soon as Marlo finished that sentence, screeching tires could be heard from about a block away from me. It has begun. The screeching tires continued followed by an evil laugh from Lux. Then scraping metal with a loud crash at the end could be heard, a few of the people walking in front of me lifted their heads.

"Come on Lux, we got only one shot at this. You're gonna have to do something better." Grace encouraged; there was a frustrated sigh from Lux and the sound of water flowing. That soon turned into a roar of water and the sound of the water hitting the road. Something moved in the corner of my eye, I turned my head to see what it was. Water was rushing up to meet me, I stood up straight and backed away from it until I realised it was Lux's doing. She was flooding the streets. More and more of the water kept coming and soon it was up to my ankles. This still wouldn't be enough; people were obviously annoyed but not scared. We needed fear from the people to make this work.

"Lux, bigger!" Nara shouted, curses started streaming out of Lux's mouth as the sky above me went dark. Clouds gathered above my head and lightning cracked, lighting up the sky. Thunder rumbled as people looked up in awe at this strange weather. Then, there was a gasp from Lux.

"Hey, if I can turn objects into water then I can turn into water, right?" She asked, I was assuming herself. There was a pause while, I think, she tested this theory.

"I can! You know how water can conduct electricity?" Lux asked herself again, I jumped as a bolt of lightning struck exactly where Lux was. There was slight crackling over the comm and I watched as the light from the bolt slowly faded. The sky grew dark until it looked almost like nightfall with the sun trying desperately to peek through the heavy layer of clouds. There were sounds of explosions and flashes of light from down the block where Lux had started to cause chaos.

"Incoming!" Marlo called, the sound of a jet engine filled the air followed by the glint of metal and strips of light flew over me. Iron man. I couldn't help but smile as the plan begun to come together, he must have landed near Lux because the explosions had stopped. People had now started to worry, either running away or trying to get closer to the situation.

"Well, its about time! I was about to get the fireworks ready!" Lux yelled, not into the comm but probably at the hero that had just landed in front of her.

"Oh dear…" Nara murmured, that sent a shiver down my spine, Lux often got into place she couldn't get out of easily. There was a flash of light and a small explosion.

"Lux!" Marlo exclaimed sounding both threatening and worried. I took off running down the street towards Lux; Marlo joined me as we sprinted towards her position. We hid in a backstreet and peeped around a building so that we could see her, Nara was standing just behind her with a nervous expression on her face.

"Oh sorry about the inconvenience but I heard there was a disturbance down here. All I see are two little girls." He replied coolly, Lux clenched her fists and Nara took a step away from her.

"Two little girls that are going to make you very sorry you said that." She threatened; there was a glint her eye that was all too familiar. Thunder crashed overhead and it begun to pour with rain making the streets even wetter. Suddenly, a chime sounded faintly in the earpiece and Lux grinned.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." She added to both her opponent and us. The water around her feet swirled and twisted. Another bolt of lightning struck her and I had to shield my eyes from the light. She looked quite scary with the electricity crackling not only around her but inside her as well. When I thought about it, she could be seen through really easily. It was amazing how she had localised the electricity to just around her, keeping in within her and a little way from her feet.

Lux unclenched her fists and was about to go for the strike when an arrow was shot in her direction. From behind Lux, Nara saw the arrow and gasped. She quickly stretched out her hand towards to arrow and it turned to ash. Lux somehow made the electricity burn brighter and with that glint in her eye, she shot a jet of water out towards Iron man. He side stepped the jet and fire a repulser beam which passed straight through Lux. He fired again and failed to see the wave that Lux was conjuring behind him. Before it hit him, a bolt of lightning caught it, lighting it up with brilliance never seen before. It crashed on top of him and, surprisingly, sparks flew as it hit.

Another arrow came from the shadows and Nara turned it to ash again. The nervousness on her face was almost completely covered by pure determination. I saw the archer slip silently out of the shadows followed by a red haired lady and the super soldier. I saw the archer come out a little more followed by Captain America will the lady waited. I saw her take a step but something curved and shiny slip around her neck. Grace's scythe. As if threatening her to move, she held the blade to her throat.

Iron man recovered with some difficulty in standing up, Captain America went over to help him up but got a fireball thrown at him. As soon as Nara did that, the archer fired an arrow at her, which Lux swiftly turned to water. The fireball was deflected with the super soldier's shield and Iron man fire two repulser beams, one went through Lux and Nara dodged, the other went through Lux and hit Nara. She was pushed off her feet and hit the ground.

"Is that all you've got?" Iron man asked, Lux's eyes were directed to the face plate of Iron man now. She shook her head and water pushed both Iron man and Captain America off their feet into the whirling, writhing mess that Lux had created. Two arrows were fired but before they could reach Lux's head, Grace had raced out and sliced them in half. The lady slipped out two guns, one for each hand, and fired them repeatedly at the both but before any of the bullets could touch them they were turned to ash.

"Right, you've probably got about nine minutes to get to the tower now so we need to get busy." Nara said, Marlo and I nodded to each other and ran out into the open. While Nara's back was turned, the red head aimed the gun for her head but was rudely interrupted by a punch thrown by Marlo. She blocked it and they quickly went into a hand to hand combat match. While Lux was focusing on the two people she was currently drowning, the archer had loaded an arrow and pointed it for her arm. As he let go, I made it stop and drop to the ground, he looked over and saw me. My eyes widened as I became targeted. He quickly loaded an arrow and fired, I had to react so I stopped it and made it fall to the ground. I didn't feel ready enough to do hand to hand combat yet so I thought of something else I could do.

"Genie, knives!" I shouted into the comm, I held out my palms and three knives fell into each hand. I threw them at my opponent with a little extra speed behind each; he narrowly missed each one. One of them just cut his arm, which he didn't like very much. He grabbed two arrows out of his quiver and quick fired them right at me. I managed to stop one, but the other caught my shoulder. I bit my lip and struggled not to cry out in pain. I knew I wasn't supposed to, but I gripped the arrow and yanked it out of my shoulder. Someone behind me gasped, it was Lux. The tower of water that she had made dropped and the thunder overhead was louder than ever.

A bolt of lightning struck her and she shot out a jet of water towards my attacker. She didn't even flinch as Captain America threw his shield straight at her, there was a slight splash but it just passed through her like water. As he ran to get it, I intercepted him with a kick. He quickly blocked it and looked at me apologetically.

"I don't want to fight a lady." He said before I went for a punch to the jaw. He blocked that and I blocked his punch.

"Don't worry, if I hit you first then it should be okay." I said, sounding a lot more helpful than I probably should have. He nodded curtly but I could tell he still wasn't sure. I went to kick him in the head but he ducked so I had my back facing him. He punched me in the back of the head but the numbness that had begun to set in from the rain caused me to not feel anything. He didn't move his hand quick enough and I managed to swing my hand around and grab his wrist. From there I twisted his arm behind his back, made his shield fly to me and held him down with one foot on his other arm and the other foot on his back.

"See? Just think of us as guys with really long hair." I said to him, I dropped the shield next to him and looked up through the rain. Nara was fighting with someone twice her size just down the street, he seemed to be using a hammer.

I forgot about my hostage and raced over to aid her, the man was about to bring his hammer down on her when I made it stop in mid swing. She got out of the way and knocked him to his knees, she threw a fireball at him but he turned around and knocked it away with his hammer.

"I never thought that mere mortals could possess such powers." He muttered to himself, but his voice was so loud and deep that you couldn't help but hear it. She continued she throw fireballs at him only for him to knock them away with ease. I took a few steps over to her and she looked towards me. Horror came over her features as she gazed over my shoulder; I turned around in time to see a repulser beam being fired at me. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact but it didn't come. No scorching pain, nothing. I opened my eyes slowly to see the beam of light frozen in mid air. I looked over to Nara who was barely blocking the attacks coming from the hammer wielder while holding out her hand, which was making the beam stop.

I moved out of the beams path and pointed both of my hands towards him. I shook them and the ground around him shook with my hands. I shook them more violently and he fell to the ground. She rushed over to me with her hand still pointed at the beam; she stared at it for a little before… I couldn't believe my eyes, the beam just burst into flames and turned to ash. I looked at her as she dropped her arm and shrugged.

"Seven minutes, get a move on." She said into the comm, I nodded. Time was running out. We ran to Marlo's side as she pushed away the red head she had been grappling with. She sent a shock wave her way followed by a fireball from Nara. We stood back to back, surveying who was closest to us when Grace came up beside me. The signal.

"I'm off, make me disappear." I called into the earpiece and soon Lux came sprinting over to us. We stood in a circle with out backs to the centre; ready for anything they were going to throw at us. I could just make out the advancing figures of Captain America and the person Nara was fighting, the red head wasn't far away with Iron man and the archer on either side of her. They were all coming in when all of a sudden Nara shouted "Now!" When she did, a ring of fire surrounded us, burning with the passion and determination that we all displayed. Then Lux quickly made the water around us fall onto the flames causing steam to bellow up from it.

With screams and yells they all leaped out of the steam in different directions, I quickly slipped out of it and into the shadows. Before I begun to make my way towards the tower, I glanced behind me. They were fighting even fiercer than ever to make sure I got away without being seen. Grace spun her scythe above her head before narrowly missing the red heads neck, Nara attempted to melt the armour right off Iron man and Marlo knock the archer off his feet with a massive shock wave. I hurried away from the scene and pushed my way through the small crowd that had formed.

I kept my head down and slowed down just in case one of the Avengers noticed I was gone. Once I had reached the tower I quickly looked around me, everyone that still remain was engrossed in the battle just a few blocks away so I was safe. I held onto the sleeves of my cardigan and looked up at the balcony slash landing strip above my head. I had to squint briefly from a flash of lightning but once I could see everything I commanded to myself _"Up" _just like when I did with my flute and up I went. This time it was the cardigan taking me up and I was a little worried I would slip out of it.

I landed silently on the balcony and hurried inside, being careful not to be exposed for too long. I was inside an open plan living room of some kind; it didn't look too bad. A little bare but it was for style, not comfort. I knew the elevator wouldn't be working so I crossed that out. But I saw no stairs in sight, that was until I spied a little door hidden away in the corner. Fire escape. Then a thought hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Lu- Hydro? Which floor are the files on?" I asked into the comm. There was a pause before she answered sounding a little out of breath.

"It's either fourteen or fifteen, I can't remember. It's one of those though." She replied, sounding preoccupied. I nodded to myself, fourteen or fifteen, at least she didn't think it was between five and twenty.

I stalked over to the fire escape and begun to make my way down. From what I could tell there were about twenty-five odd floors. I soon knew since when a landing came there was a door with the floor number on it. I passed by twenty-four, twenty-three, twenty-two and twenty one with silence as my company. Then when I hit about half way to eighteen I heard something through the comm.

"Gr- Genie! Help me out! I got Iron butt face on my tail and I need your help!" Lux shouted through the comm. There was an exasperated sigh from Grace.

"I've got my own problems." She yelled back. There was a pause followed by Marlo laughing.

"Cake?! I ask for you to get him away from me and you fling cake at his face?!" Lux screamed, now Nara had started laughing.

"It was Black Forest! Be thankful! A beautiful Black Forest cake wasted on a great oaf like that!" Grace called back; I couldn't help but snigger at that conversation.

"Oh no, that's all you can think about! Cake! Why don't you just drop a big bowl on him as well!" Lux retorted sarcastically. There was silence as I slowed down to the fifteenth floor. Then Marlo started cracking up again, and I mean really cracking up.

"I didn't mean literally!" Lux yelled.

"You said to drop a bowl on him so I did!" Grace shouted back, Marlo was in stitches.

I stopped listening to the conversation and opened the door to the fifteenth floor. I was at the end of a long hallway and at the end was the elevator. I cautiously stepped out and made sure that the door behind me was closed. The doors along both side of me didn't look like they held files, but I had to try. I opened the first door on my left, unopened letters; I opened the first door on my right, forgotten bills. I went to open the second door on my left when I heard something stir from further down. Without thinking I leaped into the room, quietly closed the door and hid amongst the files. Files!

I looked around me at the piles of paper and filing cabinets; I smiled but kept listening for any sign of another person within the building. I then noticed the throbbing in my shoulder, where it had been shot. I looked down at it and saw blood soaked into the fabric around it. I held my breath and clutched my shoulder; the stir was definitely some one. I could hear footsteps but they were going away from me. I let myself breathe again and made my eye start to search the room. There were files on everything from weapons to different alcohols. My eyes stopped on a cabinet drawer labelled _Targets: A- I. _I pushed myself towards them and opened the drawer. I slowly flicked through the files until I reached one with the name _Apocalypse_ on it.

I took it out and looked up and down the cover, it had a picture of Ashley on it. I was about to open it when I saw the hand I was going to use was covered in blood. I sighed and made it float out of my hand, under my cardigan where I then held onto it with my spare arm. I then listened just a little more, just in case the other person hadn't left yet. Silence. I nodded to myself and opened the door, quickly skiting along the floor to the darkness of the fire escape. I shut the door behind me and begun to make my way down the fire escape to the ground floor.

"I'm coming out, look busy." I reported into the comm, there were sounds of acknowledgment as I hit the tenth floor landing. I was going faster than ever, like I was practically flying down the steps. But I wasn't complaining, I wanted to be done with this. I wanted to get back to the warehouse and read the files, find out what was so special about our deceased friend.

I burst out into the grey light of the storm and was surprised to find the water up to my shins. The rain was pelting down on me as I sloshed my way back towards the battle. I had to go around a backstreet to get back in or the crowd would have seen me.

"Right, I'm here." I said upon seeing Nara shoot two fireballs at the archer, I stumbled straight past her and almost got knocked over by the red head. She threw a punch my way but I ducked and elbowed her in the back.

"Alright then, Nara, you're our pyrotechnic and I've set the stage. We're out of here." Lux commanded, Nara came up beside me with the archer just on her tail. I ducked as she kicked the red head behind me and I grabbed the archer's foot, pulling it out from underneath him. He fell into the water with a splash; I looked up just in time to see two missiles coming for us. Grace jumped out from the mists of the rain and sliced them in half. I saw Lux back away from her opponent, the hammer wielder, and almost bump into Grace. Marlo came running towards us out of the range of Captain America's shield.

Lux Marlo and Grace all went to their knees whilst I made three car come over and start circling us. I looked behind me to see Nara holding a ball of fire, a growing ball of fire. I noticed that as the rain touched her skin, it would fizzle into steam. She bent her head over the ball of fire to protect it from the rain, then our eyes met. She couldn't do it. I could tell she thought she couldn't do it.

"Marlo, give her something. She thinks she can't do it!" I shouted into the comm, Marlo's head swivelled around and she stared at Nara. I looked at her eyes change, they burned with something new until they literally were on fire. The ball of fire grew, twisting and turning into a beautiful phoenix. Wings made of flames and a beak as sharp as a sword, the phoenix eyed the people gathered around. I dropped the cars and Nara took that as the untold signal.

I swoop over our head at the Avengers around us, scattering them. I would occasionally snap its beak as if to threaten them. Then it banked around so it was flying right at us. It swooped down and I saw its wings brush the water edge, turning it to steam. It was getting so close I could feel the heat radiating off it, when I though it was going to fly right into us it dipped down into the water and a massive cloud of steam bellowed up all around us.

We knew what we had to do, we ran in different directions but I was able to push the files into Lux's chest before taking off. For some reason, the chaos at that particular moment reminded me of the hunger games. I sprinted as fast as I could away from my spot to where ever I could. I quickly checked behind me, no one was there which was both scary and relieving. But as I started to run again, I hit something hard and fell onto my back.

The figure of Captain America then swam into my vision, I tried to crawl away but the firm hand he layed on my shoulder froze me to the spot. I looked around me for some sign of my friends that could help me but no one was around. He yanked me to my feet and I winced at the pain. As the steam slowly clear he made me walk, with his hand still on my shoulder. The one that had been shot at. Jet engines filled my ears and I saw the steam being pushed away. I then remembered what Lux had asked about the earpiece.

Without using my hands, I clicked the switch behind the hook and flung the earpiece at the road. It smash so easily, like it was glass. For the last time, I looked behind me just in case there was someone there to help me. But again there was no one. I faced forwards and stared at the black aircraft that had landed.

_Hey, Freak, where are you? _I heard Lux ask in my head, I kept my eyes down as I focused on sending her a message.

_Run! Don't look just run!_ I sent, Captain America grabbed both of my wrists and put them behind my back. I was guessing as an added precaution.

_No! Oh, shit you got captured didn't you?_ Marlo asked, obviously Lux relayed the message to the rest of them.

_Look, I'm near you I can help you._ Grace offered, I shook my head.

_No, Disney Princess you can't! You'll get captured too! _Lux cried, I assumed they were not only thinking the conversation but speaking it as well.

The aircraft came into full view and almost all of the Avengers were there waiting for me. Minus Iron man and the other man with the hammer. The super soldier led me onto the aircraft and sat me down on one of the hard seats lining the walls. As the other two forwarded in, the door closed and they took their seats across from me. I avoided their eyes and instead closed them, focusing on Marlo's vision.

I opened my eyes to see the city around me; Marlo was wearing a blonde bob cut wig with sunglasses on. She looked around the city skies until she saw the black, streamlined figure of the aircraft. She started running towards it, but as it sped away she slowed down to a walk, realising it wasn't going to happen.

My vision came back to my own and I kept my eyes to the floor. It was then that I let my emotions catch up with me. To let the full damage of what had happened soak in, surprisingly it didn't feel that bad. It was just the shame that was killing me.

* * *

A/N: Wow! Sorry this one was so long but I had to fit a lot in one! Please give some feedback with how I did, I have a feeling I aimed and missed. Thank you!


	17. Chapter 17

**Warning:** I cannot, no matter how hard I try, do romance. So please bear with me as I attempt to put a smidgen of romance into this story. Please tell me if I did well or not, it would be much appreciated!

* * *

We soared high above the clouds; I wasn't even sure where we were going. I had lost my grip on reality not even ten minutes into the trip. I was having a debate with myself what would be going on for my friends. It became easier to imagine when they started sending their conversation to me.

_You know what? I'm not sure whether to be sad or happy about this situation._ I heard Marlo start; everyone would have turned around to look at her.

_How could you be happy?_ Grace asked, I could hear murmurs of agreement from Lux and Nara.

_Because I just scored eighty dollars from Lux._ I could hear the smile from Marlo in that sentence. A frustrated sighed would have come from Lux because she would have known she had lost the bet. Grace and Nara would have started laughing, because it was usually one of them proved wrong or robbed of their money. But this time it was Lux.

_Oh, and I get another twenty for guessing Nara with the first kill._ Marlo added.

_I get twenty from Lux and ten from Grace for guessing Iron man would be there first._ Nara said, not wanting to miss out on the torture that they were putting Lux through.

_I get forty from Marlo for the drowning thingy._ Grace added, Marlo would have shrugged because she had money to spare.

_Yeah, but I also get thirty for guessing that the first punch would be from Iron man!_ Lux objected, trying to make it sound like she had something for herself. She always tried to be the best, but it wasn't working this time.

I was jolted out of the conversation by something bumping us around; I opened my eyes and looked around the aircraft for the thing that was hitting us. The lack of windows in this compartment made me even more scared of what it was. I looked through a doorway into the pilot's section. The windshield was the only window. We were landing on some kind of airstrip. As the aircraft slowed to a halt, I was about to bring my hands onto my lap just to realise that at some point in that trip they had put handcuffs on me.

I sighed and, without using my hands, silently picked the lock on the handcuffs. It kept me busy as they took me off the aircraft and surrounded me with guards. Once I had them covered I brought my hands around to the front and rubbed my wrists with the handcuffs dangling from my left hand. No sooner had I done that than the red headed lady brought my arms back behind me done the handcuffs up again. They made me walk inside a massive dome shaped structure and led me down hallways.

Computer rooms and laboratories passed me on my way through and I stopped picking the lock for a second time just to marvel at the sights. Once I had passed them, I got back to picking and let the handcuffs dangle from my left hand for a second time in a row. The red head tightened them again but this time held a gun in her hand, keeping close to me as if to say "If you do that one more time, your head won't be on your shoulders." I stopped after that.

Instead as we made our way through the last tangle of corridors, I kept my eyes to the floor and focused on the pain of my shoulder. Blood hadn't stopped flowing but it had definitely slowed. Although one time I did look up was when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a massive room. I was assuming this was the control room, judging by the amount of people rushing about, the walls filled with technology, the important looking meeting table just off to the side and the gigantic glass wall at the back.

I didn't notice that I had slowed my walking pace down until I got a sharp jab in the back from a gun one of the guards held. I clenched my jaw and kept moving, not wanting to draw any attention to myself. For the rest of the way, I kept my eyes to the floor. I knew people were looking at me as I would pass by windows, I mean who wouldn't be curious about a young, shy looking adolescent being escorted somewhere by about fifteen odd heavily armed guards. I know I would.

They had finally reached my destination, a big circular room with machines on the walls and a doorway leading off to somewhere else. In the centre of the room was a rather large, cylindrical, glass and steel container suspended over a slight dip in the floor. There was a ramp leading up to a door, I was guessing that was where they were think of putting me. I bit my lip as they led me to the door, it slid open and without any poking or prodding stepped in. I glanced over my shoulder as the door slid closed and the guards dispersed. Soon I was alone in the great grey room; I picked the lock on the handcuffs for the third time and flung them at the floor. I rolled my wrists, which had started to get sore and red from rubbing.

I then got myself comfortable in the centre of the container and observed my surroundings. I noticed a control pad just a little way away from the door of the container, it had a few buttons on it but one in particular caught my eye. A big red button with a clear covering over it, which must do something bad. I decided that the control panel controlled what happened to this container, I was trapped. I also noticed how thick the glass was; the steel reinforced it making it even stronger. I could tell this was built for something before me, possibly not as strong if I put my mind to it.

There was a change in levels as I followed the path outside. So if I was outside looking in, I would first start on a lower level, climb some stairs to get a better view then go down some stairs to come back to the same level I had started at. This was a very interesting little room, with so many switches and dials on one mechanic panel alone. But this reminded me of Lux and it comforted me. Then the image of the file came into my mind; I wonder what was on it? What does it reveal? Will it be really bad or just mildly bad? I had to get out of here and find out.

What was I thinking, letting them just take me in here. I could have gone by now, left them in the dust. I searched the room for something I could use to get out of here; a fire extinguisher caught my eye. I stared at it and it begun to shake, I tilted my chin up slightly and it broke from its place in the wall. I made it float close to the glass wall of the container, then I made it float backwards slightly. I blocked out everything else and made it come forwards but this time with a lot more speed behind it.

It was about to hit the glass when I heard the door to the room open; I made the fire extinguisher drop into the dip that surrounded me. It hit the floor with a loud clank. I looked up at the figure in the doorway and a shiver went down my spine. An eye patch, that was the first thing I saw. His remaining eye glared at me. He was wearing all black, black shirt, black pants, black boots, black coat, everything. I could tell he had some sense of authority about himself by the way he strode over to the control panel. This was one person you just didn't mess with. Although he had those tough guy vibes about him, he seemed quite wise as well. Not as in knowledge, but as in experience and common sense.

"I'm not completely sure what you had to gain from that little episode. But if you fought like that it must have been something." He said, his voice was clear and rang slightly off the room's walls. He turned around to face me fully, his coat fluttering around his calves.

"What was it? Popularity?" He added, felt my fingers start to twirl the emerald pendant around themselves. I felt as if I couldn't lie to this person so I shook my head. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and narrowed his eyes.

"Information of some sort?" He inquired, that was true but after shaking my head the first time it felt so easy to do. So I lied and shook my head.

"Was it a bet?" I looked up at him in question when he asked that. He sighed and turned back to the control panel.

"I hope you get how this works, cause I don't want to see your pretty little face get messed up." He said, he flicked a few switches and I heard the doors seal up. Then he switched one that made the floor beneath the container open up. I heard the scrape of metal on metal and knew that it was the fire extinguisher. I crawled to the edge of the container and looked down through the glass. Below me was the ground, at least six kilometres away from me. And a little red speck dropping, good bye fire extinguisher. With my eyes wide, I crawled back to my little spot in the centre. He pointed to the big red button then to me.

"If you try to get out of here, you even think about it and you are giving yourself a death wish. I press this button and its out the chute met with a twenty thousand feet drop." He explained, I nodded in understanding and he flicked all the switches back. The floor closed up and the doors unsealed. He at looked me for a moment more before heading towards the door and soon enough leaving me alone once more. I was left with nothing to do, so I lifted up my arms and let the cardigan float off me. I had some trouble considering my shoulder but eventually it had floated gently off me and folded itself into a nice, neat pile. I layed down and lifted up my head so it could slide under it.

I let my head rest on my cardigan and my hands lay on my stomach, I stared up at the ceiling of the glass container. I thought I might as well check in on my friends and what they were doing. I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing and focused on what Grace would be seeing.

**Grace's P.O.V, Rose is watching through her eyes.**

We were all surprised that Rose had been captured, I had even offered to help but Lux didn't want me to. I sighed as I moved around the warehouse, the orders had finally come in and we were setting up the place. I, of course, had some design input to make this place better. I thought it would be a nice surprise for Rose to come back to. I sat down on a spare chair while I watched Lux set up the hard drives and technology for our little tech corner.

"Hey, Disney Princess, give me that screwdriver would you?" She asked without looking up from her work. I put the screwdriver on the ground and kicked it to her, being too lazy to get up and physically give it to her. Suddenly, Nara appeared beside me.

"Grace, guess what?" I looked up at her; Lux also directed her attention to Nara.

"I just got a text from Axel, he said he wants to talk to me. I wonder what he wants? Maybe he wants us to get a place of our own!" She began to have a whole conversation with herself as she walked away from us. Lux and I looked at each other before she went back to her work.

"We are so going to spy on her." Lux said, dropping her tools and wiping her hands on an old rag. I raised an eyebrow in question and she rolled her eyes.

"Grace, I want to know what is going on with 'Boy Toy Axel', he just doesn't seem right. I mean, what kind of guy doesn't tell his girlfriend where he works?" Lux explained slowly, Marlo came in at this point.

"Maybe he works for the government in Area 51. Where he's tracking the aliens that are watching us." She suggested, both Lux and I groaned. Marlo is not going to let go of the alien's thing easily, we knew it.

"I bet you ten bucks he's something normal but really disgusting or something." Lux challenged, I stared at her. After losing at least one hundred dollars in bets not even two hours ago, I was surprised at her persistence.

"I bet you ten bucks he works for the government. " Marlo retorted, Lux stuck out her hand and Marlo shook it.

"Now let's go find Nara's boy toy." Lux said, we all jumped up and raced to the car parked outside the warehouse. This was going to be very interesting.

We followed them to the park, and night was setting in. We had found that she was actually going shopping for the day before she went to meet him, so we had wasted most of our day watching Nara try on clothes and look at jewellery. Once she had decided to arrange a time and place we became more interested, or as Lux said "We must become more invisible."

"How can we become more invisible if we aren't even invisible in the first place?" I asked her; Lux's response was rubbing her temples and muttering something to herself.

So, there we were. Crouched in a bush, staring at Nara standing alone in the middle of the pathway of Central Park. She kept turning her head and checking her watch for any sign that he was late. She turned in a full circle, looking for him in the shadows. I was worried that she might have found us for a second, but she simply brushed it off and kept looking. Her hand went to her pocket and she took out her phone, I could tell she was just about to ring him when there was crunching sound nearby.

As it was coming closer she looked up and smiled, a man in a red T-shirt and black pants slowly walked towards her. He had spiky dark red hair and dark brown eyes; he was tall with broad shoulders and big hands. I frowned as I looked him up and down, he belonged in a wrestling ring he was that big. But it wasn't overwhelmingly or sickeningly big, just a bit bigger than normal. She ran up to him and threw herself into his arms, he wrapped his arms around her waist and they hugged each other as their greeting.

When they finally pulled away from each other, Nara took his hand to lead him to a bench but he stayed. He shook his head and she nodded in understanding, knowing that he wanted to stay put. He looked over his shoulders and behind Nara before he began talking.

"I want to talk to you today." He started; she nodded to say that she had got that part.

"What about?" She asked sweetly, I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he purposefully avoiding her eyes?

"Well, you were on the news today." He said, Nara's eyes widened at that part and so did mine. We had been on the news? Awesome!

"Yes?" Nara asked, wondering where this was going.

"You were shooting fireballs." He added, he sounded like he could barely believe it himself. She nodded looking slightly… Embarrassed? Nara was embarrassed of her skills?

"You shot at the people who had saved us from an alien take over." He clarified, he sounded almost angry but in a way he didn't. This guy was her boyfriend? He was a complete ass and I had known him for all of two minutes. Nara looked down at her feet and bit her lip.

"We kind of had to, to get something from them." She explained, she reminded me of a little kid in primary school that had done something wrong and had to go to the principal's office.

"What did you have to get from them, Nara?" He asked, he was getting tense and I didn't have to have Marlo's power to see that.

"We had to- to get… Um…" She was fumbling around with her own words and I could tell that she both did and didn't want to tell him.

"Nara! What did you steal?" He shouted, she jumped at this sudden outburst and stared at him. He looked like he was going to hurt her right then and there. Instead he straightened himself and ran his fingers through his hair.

"You've changed, and not for the better." He spat at her, I looked at Lux and she was just as shocked as I was. Then I saw Marlo's face, she was furious. She looked like she was going to tackle him to the ground. Then I noticed something wet on my nose, a droplet. I looked up, then looked at Lux. She stared at me then looked at the sky; it was going to rain. It started to sprinkle with rain but not enough to soak us.

"Are you trying to be better than me? Getting powers suddenly give you a burst of confidence?" He questioned; he took a threatening step towards Nara who seemed to have halved in height. She shook her head furiously, attempting to convince Axel. He narrowed his eyes at her and a tear ran down her cheek.

"Look, I don't know what your reason is, whether it's about me or not, but you are so different now. I liked the person you were before, I don't understand why you had to change now." He said, Nara's bottom lip shook as the rain a got just a little harder.

"No, Axel! I can go back to the way I was! For you!" She begged, I shook my head. She was practically down on her knees for something that she didn't do, I was disgusted with this person.

"When someone changes they can never go back." He objected, more tears ran down her cheeks and dropped onto the gravel that she was now kneeling on.

"Axel, I can! I can go back for you." She cried, trying to breathe through the sobs that she choked out.

"We're done." He murmured, turning his back on her. She buried her face in her hands and cried, you could hear it easily over the rain. Then something caught my eye, something bright amidst the rain. It was an ember, it didn't die as the rain hit it but it slowly fluttered down to the ground where it immediately went out. More and more of these embers came fluttering down until it was literally raining embers. The strange thing about these embers though was that when they touched something, it would just fizzle out and die. It wouldn't burn it or damage it in anyway. Axel looked up at these embers then down at the mess that was Nara. I felt Marlo stir beside me.

"Why did you do this?" He asked Nara; she looked up at him through the tears.

"I'm sorry Axel!" She rasped out. He raised his hand and she put her arms over her head. Marlo leaped out of her position and ran in front of Nara, Axel's hand stayed suspended.

"Oh, look. It's your freak of a friend-" Marlo punched him square in the nose, you could hear the crack from our position. She ignored the embers flying around her, he bent over and Marlo kneed him in the head. Then, just to make sure, she kicked him back so he fell on the ground.

Lux and I glanced at each other before bursting out of our bush to see the situation first hand. Marlo helped the sobbing Nara to her feet while we helped Axel to his. I don't even know why we bothered. I was about to go help Nara when Lux punched Axel in the cheek, knocking him down again. I stared at her in question, she shrugged.

"It looked like fun, so I wanted to try." Was her response, I nodded in agreement.

"You wimps, stupid little girls." Axel hissed, Lux went to Nara's side while I tried to stop Marlo from ripping him apart. She was clawing at him and screaming foul things at the top of her lungs.

Then when I thought she had calmed down, I saw her staring at him and my eyes went wide. She narrowed them and I looked back over my shoulder at him, he had a look of complete and utter horror etched on his face. I looked back to Marlo and almost screamed myself. Her eyes were black, and I'm not just talking the iris, I'm talking all of it. It looked like she had taken them out of her sockets and left us to look at the hollow insides. But she had an expression of full concentration, which worried me the most.

He begun to scream, terrified wails and I looked at him for the last time, I had hoped. Despair, fear, sadness, torture, all displayed on his face as he sat there looking into nothing and screaming like he was in a soundproof room. In a mental institution.


	18. Chapter 18

The bright lights of the room blinded me for a second as my eyes got used to their own vision again. I yawned and sat up, cracking my knuckles as I did. The view from Grace's eyes informed me on what to expect when I got out. The break up between Nara and Axel was quite a surprise though, but I think we all knew something was up with him. She would come to our place sometimes with bruises on her arms but still wear her famous smile.

Then there was Marlo's reaction to the whole thing; I couldn't blame her for wanting to personally tear him limb from limb. But that last part, when her eyes went black and she sent him into a fit. That was scary, it was almost like she had just cracked or something. Maybe that's what happens when we ignore the limit that our brain places on us. Maybe we just lose it, get put into an autopilot type scenario like me when I fall asleep. Let something else control us for a while. It was scary to think that something else would be in charge of such a mentally damaging power like Marlo's, or an extremely dangerous power like Nara's. Or something unimaginably powerful like mine.

I shuddered at the thought of me pushing my limit, no one would survive. I would crack the world in half, then finish off the rest of the solar system the next time I slept. I wanted to remove these thoughts from my head so I tried to think of something else. I made my cardigan float up from behind me to in front of my face; I looked at the hole in the shoulder where the arrow had gone through. I narrowed my eyes so that I could see the threads better; they were thin so the job I had decided for myself wasn't going to be easy.

The threads wiggled around before slowly moving towards each other, weaving their way back together. I smiled as I patched up the hole that was in my shoulder, then making tiny knots to secure the ends together. I grabbed the cardigan and it went limp in my hands, I carefully looked over the spot that I had just repaired. It looked like new.

I was about to let a smile cross my face when the door to the room slid open; I let the cardigan slip through my fingers as I saw people walking. I stared as they forwarded in and stood around me. The Avengers. I didn't know why, but I felt an immense amount of hate towards them. But then again, fear also made its way into my feelings. I didn't know why I felt so scared around them and I tried to hide it. I saw the same guy that came in before walk in but hang around the door.

"You're gonna talk to these guys, give them a heads up on what your little buddies are gonna do next." He said, I raised my eyebrows at him. I wasn't telling anyone anything; one reason was because I didn't even know what we were doing next. Upon seeing my expression, the man added something to his previous sentence.

"Or they're gonna make you talk." The door slid open and he disappeared, leaving me alone with five of the Avengers. No, six. There were six of them, I counted them in my head and there were six of them in the room. I looked at each one as I said their names in my head, checking them off my list. Stark, number one, Captain America, number two, Blondie, number three, Archer, number four, Red Head, number five and… Someone else?

"I'm ready for my apology, when ever you're ready." Tony said, breaking the silence that had settled over the room. I turned to stare at him; he was looking at me from the raise platform. On the bench behind him, a silver canister floated up and hit him on the head before falling to the ground. He turned around just in time to see the canister hit the floor, he rubbed the back of his head and turned his head back around to me.

"Wise guy, huh?" He muttered, I lifted the canister up again to go for another whack but Captain America intercepted it. He caught it and put it back down on the bench.

"You two have seen each other before?" He asked, looking from Tony to me then back again. I turned my eyes to the floor and nodded.

"Yeah, when she threw a rock at my car then ran off. Which, by the way, I'll send you the bill for." He answered sounding very bitter. I remembered it like yesterday; of course the chase caused this chain of events to occur in the first place. If he wouldn't have chased, I wouldn't have had to hide and therefore have no powers.

"Should have thrown it at your head." I muttered under my breath, but it must have been too loud because Tony scoffed.

"At least my head is worth more than your head ever will be." He retorted, I looked up at him in question. What did that have to do with anything?

"Moving on, why did you do it?" The soldier said, attempting to get things back on track. I let my eyes fall on him and sighed. The red head had come into view now with her arms crossed over her chest.

"As a statement?" She trialed, I shook my head just like I did with the other man.

"Publicity?" Tony asked, again I shook my head.

"Information?" Captain America questioned; I could tell that with the milliseconds worth of hesitation in shaking my head that the red head had picked up immediately that it was the correct answer. She narrowed her eyes slightly and strode up to where Tony was standing.

"What kind of information?" She asked, I took this as an opportunity to take a closer look at who was questioning me. She looked professional, a very smart assassin by the way she stood and how she was ready for anything. Not easily scared, didn't reveal emotions, and has already seen much for a woman her age. She knew how to interrogate people, twist their words until she got the truth. I knew that's what she was going to do to me.

"The smallest piece of information that you have." I replied keeping my voice quiet, I wasn't going to make this easy for them and they knew it. Tony huffed and moved to a place closer to the control panel. The archer went to stand beside his partner; I noticed the cut I had caused earlier. It looked pretty deep and I was proud of it, after all he did shoot me in the shoulder.

"What I don't understand is why you would do this to your own kind? Why you would want to hurt them?" The man with the hammer asked, except he didn't have his hammer with him.

"But it wasn't the people I was after." I said, the room seemed to relax slightly at this news. "It was you." I added, I could tell all eyes were on me. Even that other person of which I had no idea about, he seemed to be busy with something else but as soon as I said that he looked up.

"Us?" The archer asked, I nodded casually still struggling on the inside to keep it cool.

"Why us?" Captain America asked, I sighed and started listing the pros and cons in my head about telling them that it was to get them away from where the information was held. I decided I would try and steer around it, but if it came to it, it had already happened. What could be done about the past? As far as I was concerned, time travel hadn't been invented yet.

"To get you away." I answered; I could tell they were getting restless with this new information set out for them. This made me

"Away from what?" Tony asked, I had almost forgotten he was there. I looked over to him and smiled.

"Away from what I needed to do." I answered; I could tell he was starting to get annoyed with my short answers. This made me more nervous than I already was, because any one of them could push that button to drop me out of this strange place. And even though I felt that, I pushed on with my tough guy act.

_She needs to give us longer answers or-_

_Or what?_ I asked him, interrupting his thoughts. His eyes went wide as he stared at me, realising what had just happened.

_Or what, ?_ I repeated, shock briefly passed through his eyes before it went back to his usual, smug look.

_That's right; I can hear all of your thoughts._ I sent to all of them, making my eyes flick from one face to another. Captain America and Blondie looked around them, expecting to find someone near them.

_If you don't give them to me, then I'll take them from you._ I threatened; the archer's eyes avoided mine like he was thinking of something painful. I decided I would see what those thoughts of his would be.

_If she can get into me head like Loki, could she do as much damage?_ His thoughts echoed in my head like they usually do. Who was Loki? I decided to try Blondie out for size.

_How could a Midguardian possess such power alike my brother's?_ What did he call me? Who is his brother? Finally, I wanted to see what the red head thought of all this.

_She has to be bluffing, Loki is gone and I don't think there could ever be one like him to take his place. It's impossible._

"I'm not bluffing." I said, breaking the silence. I looked the red head straight in the eye as I said that.

"Who's Loki?" I asked, the archer narrowed his eyes at me and clenched his fists.

"Loki was an enemy of ours." The red head answered, I could tell she was being a lot more careful with her words. I nodded my head curtly, I watched in silence as they seemed to get closer to one another making it easier to look at them.

"He sounds stupid. Thinking about going up against you." I commented, the blonde one whipped his head around to glare at me.

"Be cautious with your words about my brother." He snarled, I squinted at the man then thought about the name Loki. Loki... From Norse mythology? The God of Lies and Mischief? Not possible, but to say that it was true he did have a brother. Called Thor, the God of thunder. Who had a hammer... I struggled not display my sudden realisation that there was a Norse God in the same room as me. Anyway, it was about time that I got out of here.

"Loki is your brother? Interesting." I replied, this caught their attention. A sudden change in the subject. I could tell that the Norse God was about to ask me something else when the archer spoke up.

"Back to the subject, what did you need to do?" He asked, he sounded impatient which I was sure by that time that most of them were.

"Get the information." I answered; Tony stepped forward and glared at me. It worried me what he might ask, or do, next.

"I'm all about making things simpler so let's try and make this simpler, shall we?" He asked, he turned on his heel to the control pad behind him and my eye automatically went to him. I watched him as his fingers hovered over the control pad for a moment before flicking the switches that the other person had before. Everyone turned to look at him for a second before taking a step away from the edge that lead down into the dip.

"Stark, don't do this." Captain America warned, I looked up at him to see him focusing on Tony.

"She isn't talking, Cap. You got a better idea?" Tony asked and when there was no response he opened up the floor underneath my container and looked over to me.

"Talk." He ordered, I glanced at each Avenger before landing on him. One part of me wanted to talk, the part that wanted all of this over and done with so no one had to get hurt. I always liked that part of me that was so innocent. Then there was the other part that didn't want to tell them because they would win. The red head would surely find some part of it that could help them predict our next move. After much consideration, I bit my lip, closed my eyes and shook my head.

"Oh well." He sighed, he pulled the cover off the big, red button, I opened my eyes and he pressed it.


	19. Chapter 19

I clenched my fists and felt the weight of the container fall onto me. I stared straight ahead as I focused on not letting the container slip through my grasp and through the floor out into the night. It was a miracle that I had reacted so quickly, as Tony pressed the button I had to prevent myself and the container from falling as it wouldn't be pretty if it had. If it had fallen, I would be sent into a whirling descent as the ground came up to meet me. And if I was knocked unconscious during that descent, not only would I have lived (Which I currently hate) but I would have levelled the whole city with my destruction.

I didn't realise how hard it was to do that until I had to do it, the weight of the container made it very difficult. With the added vortex beneath me, threatening to literally suck me out, it was hard to manage both. I didn't particularly feel like doing it, especially since I hadn't had a lot of time to recover from the fight. My shoulder blazed with a new pain as soon as I started which divided my attention.

"You see." Tony shouted over the winds that attempted to throw me out into the darkness.

"She's fine, we just need to keep her like this and she'll talk." He added with something that sounded like "They don't call me genius for nothing." that followed. I couldn't help it by now to display my absolute terror; they were putting everyone in the aircraft at risk.

"So tell us, what is it you were after?" He asked casually, I directed my eyes towards him. He smiled smugly at me and I glanced at the other faces. They didn't look too pleased with their team mate doing this but they went along with it anyway.

"You were following a girl called Ashley aka Apocalypse; she died in the same hospital as us from the same thing that had happened to us. We wanted to know why you were following her." I answered him desperately; I could feel my consciousness slowly fading as he thought about my answer.

"I remember her." The archer jumped in, the red head nodded as well as Captain America and Tony. I peered at the other two who seemed to have no idea what was going on.

"We simply made a distraction, the fight, and I went off to steal the files from your tower since they weren't online." I explained, trying hopelessly to get a grip on both the container and my consciousness.

"Oh yeah, the little mutant kid that we had to collect for the anonymous tipster." Tony said like he had remembered something very important. The Norse God narrowed his eyes; he must have been left out of this.

"I do not recall any event like this." He commented, the red head sighed and nodded.

"You were in Asguard at the time, Thor. You couldn't have helped." She assured him in a horribly monotone voice.

"Then why wasn't I informed about this?" The mystery man asked, his voice was strangely soft. The two people in black looked at each other then back at him.

"Yeah, why wasn't he brought in on it?" Tony asked, sounding a lot more suspicious than a few moments before. He crossed his arms in front of him and lent on the wall. The two knew something, even I saw that, and they definitely weren't willing to share it. Everything was silent except for the howling of the wind beneath me.

"Because we knew you wouldn't like why we were doing it." The red head replied finally, there was a puzzled expression on everyone's faces except for the pair.

"We got access to information about what and who it was for, Director Fury instructed us to keep the information away from everyone and to keep you out of it." The archer said, extending the idea a little bit. But I still had no idea what was going on and it was getting dangerously close to the point that I was going to pass out.

"What kind of information? What, more than the fact that she was incredibly dangerous?" Tony asked, his voice starting to get louder. The red head shook her head and, with the archer on her heels, walked out of the room. She wasn't scared, or angry but rather annoyed. Tony flicked the switches back to their rightful places and slid the cover back over the big red button. The floor beneath the container closed up and the wind stopped. Tony looked from Captain America to the mystery man then he followed the red head and the archer out the door. Soon the soldier left too, leaving the mystery man and the Norse God in the room with me. I finally unclenched my fists and the whole container fell into the dip. It shocked me from the grasp of sleep and I looked around me. The ramp that was meant to connect the container to the outside world was somewhere above me.

"That was certainly confusing." The God said, I gave him a glance before lying on my back and closing my eyes. I sighed with relief and forced the thought of rest out of my mind. I need to get out of there.

"You should really get that shoulder fixed." The other one commented, I ignored him and felt around for my cardigan. I found it and pulled it close to me; I smiled as I wrapped my fingers around the thin piece of fabric. There were sounds of footsteps above where the two men were moving about, I was assuming towards the door. I didn't care, I would welcome the silence that would come after they left and I would be able to formulate a plan to get out.

I opened my eyes and sat up when I heard things being moved, and it wasn't the almost silent slide of the door. I searched the platform above for any sign of the two but saw nothing.

"If I could inquire as to what it is we are searching for, we might find it faster." I heard the God say to the other man. Now there were sounds of metal on metal, things being thrown around.

"A first aid kit, Thor. You know the box with the red cross on it?" The other man replied, there was a pause.

"Ah! The white box of healing!" Thor bellowed, obviously understanding what the other man was talking about. A soft chuckle came from the other man... Why did that sound so familiar? There was no more talk from the two as they searched for the 'white box of healing'. The only thing that indicated that they were still there was the amount of noise they were making and the occasional flicker of a metal object as it was toss in my direction.

"I have found the box, friend!" Thor shouted, it made me jump to hear his loud, deep voice after no one talking. The metal objects stopped coming and the sounds of banging and crashing stopped. Both men came into sight; Thor held the first aid kit in his hands. The pride in his eyes reminded me of Grace when she was particularly proud of something that may or may not have been very significant.

"Where was it?" The unknown man asked.

"On the wall next to the large red tube." He answered, briefly taking his eyes off the box to look at the man.

"The fire extinguisher?" The man asked, just as amused as I was with the situation. The God nodded and went back to admiring his prize.

"That was right next to the door and you didn't see it?" The man added light heartedly; Thor lifted his head from the box and looked at the man. He shook his head.

"I saw it. I merely thought that what you were doing looked more productive than simply taking it off the wall." The God explained, the man shook his head and smiled. I tried to stop the smile from stretching across my face but I couldn't help it. It reminded me of something Lux would do. She would do something completely pointless for the same goal.

Thor gave the box to the man and he nodded in thanks. I craned my neck to see what they were going to do next, both of them seemed to be looking down at me but I wasn't sure. The mystery man walked to the ramp and peeked over the edge with the God right behind him.

"How are you going to get in?" I asked him, both men backed up a few steps.

"I was hoping you could help?" He answered, answering a question with a question. I sighed; I didn't have much more energy in me for this. All I could do was an elevator thing where I made it float to his level for him to get in and out; in between I would have to put it down.

I focused on my task and slowly, carefully, clenched my fists and made the container rise. The strain was even worse than before, it was like making a person that had just run a marathon, take a ten minute break before making him slash her do it again. They're already sore and tired and they have to do it again. That was exactly what it felt like. I made the door slide open and the two came in. The man glanced behind him and blinked.

"Thor, you don't have to come with me." He said softly, the Norse God shook his head.

"She is not to be trusted; I shall protect you from her sorcery." He said in a much failed hushed voice. I made the door slide closed behind them before lowering the container down as evenly and slowly as I could possibly muster. When it had hit the floor, I let go of the control I had over it and unclenched my fists. I took a deep breath and realised that my hands were shaking. My vision briefly swam before refocusing to the two people standing in front of me.

I looked from one to the other then looked away; the mystery man quickly made his way to my side and kneeled down. He clicked open the box and started cleaning my wound. Some of the disinfectant he dabbed on it stung and I winced at the pain.

"How did this happen?" He asked, after a few minutes of pulling pieces of metal out of the hole. I must have collected a bit during the fight.

"What?" I asked.

"I can tell that these...Powers of yours are quite new. So you weren't born with them meaning that you had obtained them somehow." He explained, I nodded in understanding.

"It's a bit hard to explain." I said, I could feel my hand go up to my pendant and begin nervously twirling it around my fingers. I could tell he knew I was nervous, and I didn't even know why. But instinct told me that, even if I was around him for five minutes, something was off. He seemed just a little too timid, too quiet, too scared.

"Well, try." He encouraged, I could tell he was interested and that made me even more nervous.

"I was hit by lightning." I mumbled, the man looked up from his work and the God's eye widened.

"I had my mobile phone on and I was leaning up against I chimney, which was metal, and I got hit." I said with more detail, the man stared at me for a second before nodding and going back to cleaning my wound.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked the man, he shrugged. He put everything back that he had taken out and closed the box. I pulled my cardigan back on; I didn't want to leave it behind.

"I thought that maybe you would need help." He answered in his unusually soft voice. That still didn't answer my question though.

"Why you? A billionaire, a living legend, two assassins and a Norse God, why are you here?" I asked, summarising what information I wanted. He avoided eye contact and stood up, taking the box with him.

"It's not really important." He half whispered half murmured, the God took a step towards me as if to threaten me but it just made me more curious as to what it was he was hiding.

"Anyway, I won't be here for much longer." He added, now both Thor and I were looking at him in confusion.

"Where are you going, Doctor Banner?" The God asked, he wasn't forceful but more surprised. The man rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the floor.

"Away from here, but it's nothing you need to worry about." He said quickly, I could tell he wasn't comfortable with this new subject coming to light. I thought I may as well see what he was thinking, try to see where this was going. I narrowed my eyes in concentration as I tuned in to his thoughts and I was met with... Thunder? A storm? Waves crashing... Oh no...

I sprung to my feet, with terror building up inside me; I backed away from the pair. It was him on the bench that night? I thought, I knew, that I would never see the face of that voice. I swallowed as I tried to make sense of what it was inside that persons head because I was sure now it wasn't a monsoon. I could hear something else, just like on that night, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Someone yelling? Screaming?

I forced the thoughts out of my head and looked from one surprised face to the other. That was it, I didn't care about the plan I was getting out of there. I felt myself back into the glass of the container. Then a thought hit me. What if everything he said at the bench was true? That he was a killer? That was why the Avengers wanted him, because he was a killer.

That was it for me; my panic washed away all sense of self control. My fingers rubbed the glass in some kind of comforting way and next thing I knew I fell backwards. Half of me was still in the container; the other was outside the container in the dip. The glass had actually split in half like a doorway out. I crawled the rest of the way out into the dip and made the gap close. My heart was pounding in my chest as I stared at the two men in the container; they were stunned with what had just happened that neither of them had moved. I briefly looked around at my surroundings and saw no possible way out.

I decided I would have to make an exit so I looked at the wall of the dip and narrowed my eyes. It was hard to concentrate with both of them looking at me. I slowly made parts of the wall stick until I made a very wobbly looking staircase out of there. I quickly climbed it and ran for the door. I forced it open and without looking around streaked down the hall in front of me. I bolted past the Avengers, whom were just coming back from somewhere. Surprised faced were blurred as I ran and eventually orders were being shouted. I weaved my way around agents on their way to or from somewhere. I came to the end of the hall and turned right; I kept going until I had a choice of right or left. I heard gunshots and glanced over my shoulder at the red head aiming for me. The people behind me were closing in quickly so I chose left. I was met with the familiarity of the labs and knew that I was on the right track.

I knew that they were coming in too quickly so I ducked into one of the labs, quietly closed the door and crouched in behind it. I took gulps of air and tried to slow down my breathing as I heard people run past. The lab I was in had pictures up on computer screens. Files were spread out on tables and there was the distinct smell of coffee in the air. I wasn't really interested in the files or pictures until I saw a picture of Ashley. I crawled over to the screen and slowly stood up, the only window in the room was on the door and I was out of sight if anyone were to look through it.

I scrolled down and writing came onto the screen as well as more pictures. I narrowed my eyes and forced them to focus on the writing. My eyes went wide in surprise at the information I was reading. It said that she was forced to take part in testing, testing that was going to clone her DNA. Of course with her powers she would be of much use to... The army? Why was the army taking her and testing on her? I looked at the pictures and covered my mouth.

I wasn't one that shied away from blood, I looked forward to every dissection we did in high school science, but this was crossing the line. She was awfully thin and pale to the point that she almost blended in with the white table top, the ropes that tied her down to the table (Why on earth were they using rope?) cut through her wrists, her eyes were staring unseeing at the roof and scars covered what parts of her body were shown.

I moved onto another picture and had to stop myself from screaming. She was shackled to a wall; the picture was a view from through bars looking into the cell that Ashley was held in. A thin rag covered her frail looking body but that was all that looked delicate. She was tugging at the shackles, trying to get towards the camera. She had blood on her hands, underneath her fingernails and caked on her forehead from a gash that was there. Her hair looked more like a lion's mane that framed her face. Dirt covered her from head to toe but that wasn't the scariest thing. The pure hatred in her eyes was like a volcano that had lain dormant and had finally erupted, it was all there. Barely a hint of fear could be recognised in the eyes that I had seen too many times before.

The first emotion that I allowed was a fast burner and something that I knew wouldn't last for very long, fear. I made myself focus on that because fear was going to get me out of there. The second emotion was anger, followed by hatred, and if you put the two together there was no going back so I reserved them for later. Tears sprung into my eyes but I quickly blinked them away before they could roll down my cheeks. I took a deep breath and turned to the door. I burst out of the lab and went sprinting down the way that I had come, I was going to have to go right this time.

I didn't care whom I knocked into, I just wanted to get out of there. I dodged around an agent when an arrow came flying past my head. They had found me! I let out a cry of surprise and ran faster, if that was even possible at that point. I took another right into another corridor then two lefts and a right, I was out in a long hall and I knew this was a detour because soon I had passed by the control room. From there I tried my best to remember the corridors that I was taken down. I smelled fresh, cool air and knew I was close to the outside part of this aircraft.

Soon, I came sprinting and spluttering out onto the airstrip that we had landed on. I stopped somewhere in the middle and looked around. The aircraft was held up by four spinning propellers, two on the left and two on the right. Faintly in the distance I could see the glinting of the city lights reflecting off the water's surface. I ran towards the left side of the aircraft and quickly turned around to see the archer and Captain America dash out into the open. They couldn't see me so I started slowly backing away that was until I tripped over my foot.

The sound earned me both of them looking my way; the archer loaded an arrow and shot it aimed straight for my head. I screamed as I made it freeze about two metres from me. I swung around and ran as fast as I could to the edge of the aircraft, I could hear pounding behind me. I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see Captain America coming after me. I reached the edge and peered over it, I knew what to do I just didn't know how to do it. I turned around to be met with the soldier slowing down. I shuffled a few centimetres towards the edge so that my heel was just poking over the edge. That made him stop completely with the archer coming to join him, his bow was loaded but not pointed at me.

I shuffled again and it was just the balls of my feet on the aircraft. The soldier held out his hand but I shook my head. I could tell my vision was blurring from tears that were coming. I gripped my pendant tightly and leaned backwards so that I fell off the aircraft. I felt at peace for a brief moment before I realised I was plummeting towards the sea. Thankfully I was twisting and turning very much so it was easier to calculate how fast I was going and how far away I was from the water. I turned around so that I was facing the water and spread out my arms. I finalised my calculations and I felt my cardigan almost slow me down like when I had made it lift me up to the tower.

I latched onto the sleeves of as I evened out over the water, like an aeroplane evening out after taking off. I had fully evened out and started properly flying when the water was approximately twenty metres below me. I looked around me and saw the faint outline of the aircraft above me. Then something came shooting out of it with a trail of light behind it. Iron man, he was coming to get me. Panic shot through me which made me fly even faster than before. The city was about two kilometres away from me; if I was going to outrun him then I would have to put everything into it.

I could tell he was closing in on me as I heard jets getting closer. I bit my lip and tried with all I had to get myself back to the warehouse. I shook my head as I looked at me options, with dread in my heart I dipped down into the ocean beneath me. I held my breath and closed my eyes as I fell onto the ground... The ground? I was on solid ground. I opened my eyes to the well-lit space of the warehouse. In the corner of my eye, I saw bubbles disappear above my head. I looked around at the faces of my friends, an exceptionally joyous expression on Lux's face.

"The 'awesome power' God smiles down on me!" She exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air. Both Nara and Grace rolled their eyes of whom were on either side of Lux. Nara made flames appear in her hand which made Lux jump back giving Grace even more power behind her frying pan to Lux's head. Lux fell to the ground unconscious and I watched as both of them stepped over her like walking on pavement to come and greet me.

* * *

A/N: I'm so sorry it took so long to get this one up but here it is! I was running dry on inspiration so... Yeah!


	20. Chapter 20

**Woah! Major chapter! So much stuff! Be warned!**

* * *

I was shown to the corner that they had called 'The Meeting Room'. It looked more like an office building than a warehouse with the makeshift walls they had put up. In the room was a table right in the centre about waist high, it had the files I had stolen on it. Some chairs sat in the corner of the room waiting to be used on the smaller table that was just a metre away from the central one. We all flocked to the centre table and we stood around it, perusing the files that were laid out before us. I let me eyes take in the information before me. None of it was new.

"Ashley was picked to be tested for a government operation. Since her skills were so powerful, they thought they could replicate her DNA and inject it into soldiers to use them as weapons," Marlo informed, outlining most of the details in front of me.

"Blah, blah, blah, we've heard it all before. Why is this so different from all the other bioweapon tests that they're doing?" Lux asked, it was like she had read my mind because that was exactly what I was thinking.

"Because this way was safe, just cloning someone's DNA. There was no catch to the method, nothing special just get a mutant and clone its DNA. But the tests weren't at all easy. Apparently the tests would go wrong, the DNA would kill its subject or the blood sample would simply disappear altogether," Nara added with worry evident in her voice.

"This led to excessive testing, almost killing her many times. But because they needed her, they would try as hard as they could to keep her alive," Marlo said, I nodded in understanding and recalled the horrific pictures back into my head.

"But why her? Why not a different person?" I asked, I already knew the answer I just wanted to hear it from them.

"Her skills would have given her opportunity to kill someone indirectly; she could pass on a disease, she could give them horrible luck and possibly even kill them just by staring at them long enough. No one would suspect a thing as she killed freely. Imagine a whole army with that kind of power," Marlo said, reminding all of us what our friend was capable of.

"So they almost killed her because she was different..." Grace confirmed, we all nodded and stared down at the files.

That's when my fear finally burned out of me and allowed my other emotion to come through. The one that could stay with me for the rest of my life, fury. Anger, hatred, rage, whatever you wanted to call it, I felt it.

"That was exactly why they almost killed her," I murmured, I bit my lip and closed my eyes. I tried to think about what to do, what I could do, what has already been done. I focused on my own thoughts and tried to formulate some kind of plan for something but was distracted when I felt someone touch my arm. I opened my eyes and saw Marlo staring me straight in the eye. I looked past her as the small table fell to the ground. I flinched as it clattered back into place.

"Do we know who it was that was in charge of the operation?" I asked, pulling my eyes away from the table and back to Marlo.

"Just the name 'Sergeant Major A.N'. We couldn't find out who that was," She replied, I nodded and turned away from her.

"Right, well I want revenge for what has happened to our friend and if we can't find the person who did it we'll just do the next best thing. The Avengers," I stated, everyone stared at me like I was crazy. Then Lux shook her head and came to stand beside me with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, let's get some revenge. I mean it'll be a surprise attack so they won't be expecting it." She said, I could see she was seeing this as a fun thing to do but I was dead serious. Marlo shrugged and came over to join us.

"We could get some extra info out of them," She said thoughtfully.

"Will it be violent?" Grace asked in her innocent voice, Lux rolled her eyes and I smiled.

"Yes, Disney Princess, it will be violent," Lux answered, Grace shifted uncomfortably but eventually nodded and we all, including Nara, walked out into the hall that was there.

"Okay, if we're going out then I would like us to try on our new uniforms." Nara said, walking back down the way we came with Marlo at her side. She led us down the hall and turned into the opening where I had landed only moments ago. She turned down another hall and we forwarded into a room with a wardrobe and a few changing rooms.

"While you were being questioned, I went shopping for some things that we could wear to, you know, make us look more like a team," Nara explained, Marlo, Lux and Grace all looked at each other in knowing. She flung open the wardrobe door and inside was piles upon piles of clothes. But they were in organised piles, one pile for each of us.

"Right, I tried to make it so that the colours suited our powers. I tried to keep them dark to stay with the whole threatening type look. So, I've got reds and dark oranges, Marlo's got the gold and silvers, Lux has the dark blues, Grace has the deep purples and dark pinks and Rose has the forest greens." She said finalising what piles were ours. I had to smile at how passionate she was about her clothes.

So we picked our clothes and each went into the change rooms that were there, they were more like mini bathrooms with their own showers and vanities. I took a shower and cleaned myself up, after I was satisfied with how I smelled I got out and wrapped a towel around me. I was guessing from the patterns of cakes around the outsides that Grace had made it. I brushed my hair to my side and braided it down my shoulder.

I pulled on some underwear and my denim jeans that I had picked. I slid on my emerald green t-shirt that, surprisingly, matched my pendant of which I put back around my neck. I sat down and pulled on some socks, I stared at the boots that I had chosen. They were almost knee high, glossy black and had four buckles on them evenly spaced. I tugged them on to my feet, tucked them under my jeans and stood up. I pulled on the coat that I had chosen, it was a thick one that had long sleeves, was completely black except for the silver of the buckles that were around the waist. It had two pockets under them, one on either side, and one button to do up near my chest. The end of the coat was around the backs of my knees. I quickly did up both buckles around my waist and made sure they were secure. I stared at myself in the mirror and saw someone totally different from two weeks ago staring back.

Finally, I pulled on a black belt with two deep pockets for me to keep some throwing knives in and some slim fingerless gloves that I had grabbed at the last minute and walked back out into the area with the wardrobe. Grace was already out there, her purple, short hair fell around her face still partially wet from the shower she had. She had bright pink skinny jeans on, black glossy boots like mine and a dark purple tank top. A simple black leather jacket covered her shoulders and when she moved I could just see the face of Mickey Mouse sewn on in dark red on the bottom corner where the zipper was meant to meet. She looked me up and down and smiled; I nodded to her and grinned.

Next to come out was Marlo; she wore her long dark brown hair down so that it rolled over her shoulders and down her back. The jeans she wore were normal denim but with faint flecks of gold, not too much but just enough so that it was noticed. She wore dark grey boots that only just reflected the light in the room. Her shirt was a V-neck with the sleeves hidden under her jacket. Hers was basically the same as Grace's but it came up to her stomach instead of her waist.

Forth was Nara, her blonde hair was up in some intricate way that made it look like she had put it in a bow. She wore burnt orange skinny jeans (Everyone was wearing jeans, I discovered), a blood red T-shirt and the same black glossy boots as Grace and I. She also wore the same coat as me, except she had a few thin sliver chains on hers although they were purely for decoration.

Finally, Lux made her appearance. Her burgundy hair was still dripping as she threw it up into a high ponytail. She had normal denim jeans on and a deep blue tank top, her dark blue -almost black- boots were nearly completely hidden under her jeans. Her coat was shorter and simpler than mine and Nara's, hers came up to somewhere halfway between her waist and her knees.

We all looked at each other, we know looked like a force to be reckoned with. We looked serious, we looked scary. Even Grace, whom I thought was going to be impossible, she looked scary. When Marlo nodded, we all followed her outside and weaved our way through the halls to outside the warehouse. Then, silently, we began our walk to the tower. Marlo was in the lead with her head held high, next was Grace and Lux side by side then at the back was Nara and I. We walked down the road leading into the city when something popped into my head.

"Lux? How did you get me back?" I asked her, she tilted her head slightly my way so she could answer.

"Well, you were practically sending me a commentary of what you were doing so I guessed where you were and somehow opened up some kind of door-"

"Portal," Marlo jumped in, Lux nodded in agreement.

"Portal and you dropped in," She finished, I nodded slowly. Was I really sending her everything?

We soon arrived at the tower with the bustle of the street surprisingly minimal tonight; I could have sworn that the sky was getting lighter by that time. I looked up at the tower just as Lux pushed something into me hand, a black earpiece. I smiled at her gratefully, hooked it into my ear and stared back up at the tower. I felt two thick knives drop into the pockets of my belt and closed my eyes.

"Lux and Marlo, take Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. Grace get the two assassins, I'll keep an eye out for anyone else. Meet me in the living area up top," I said to the others, they nodded and looked from one face to another. I deliberately gave myself the position of look out because I knew there was six of them, I just didn't feel like arguing with the others about it right then.

"Hang on," I mumbled, everyone looked at me and I raise my hands to my sides, slowly I felt the weight of everyone drop down onto my shoulders like the container did. I held on to my sleeves and felt myself being lifted, my feet left the ground. I could hear surprised cries from beside me as I lifted my friends up with me. I clenched my fists and the surprised cries turned into screams as we rocketed to the top of the tower. The screams were quickly hushed and I opened my eyes. We reached the top; I floated us over the balcony for a second before landing us as quiet as a whisper. I looked around me at the semi scared faces and grinned.

"I told you to hang on," I whispered, Lux rolled her eyes and, with Marlo by her side, stalked off to the fire exit that I had directed her to. Just before they disappeared, Grace and Nara ran to the stairs and followed them down, leaving me in the silence of the open planned living room. I stepped into the space and remembered the feeling I had when I had first stepped in not even twenty four hours ago. The lights that shone down were dim and slightly eerie. Nervousness, that was gone for good. Fear, never coming back.

I sighed at the peacefulness that was soon to be interrupted. Suddenly, a bump from down stairs as well as a stream of curses from Lux's mouth through the earpiece meant that their first captor must have known we were coming. There was a vicious scream from Marlo and another bump followed by some triumphant yelling.

"Snap! No one messes with Shockwave!" Marlo cried, there was a pause.

"I thought it was just Shock?" Lux questioned, Marlo was obviously ignoring her and continuing in her celebration.

"Alright Ro-, I mean Freak, we're sending up a very beaten up looking Tony Stark right now," Lux informed, as soon as she said that a watery looking portal opened up above my head. I peered up through it and saw a body being thrown through; I quickly jumped back as it hit the ground in front of me. The portal closed and a groan escaped the body's lips. My eyes fell on him; he looked up at me and shook his head, smiling.

"You could get enough of me so you kidnapped me?" He asked in his usual cocky voice, I rolled my eyes.

"We are technically still in your tower so it's not kidnapping. Anyway, I think I've had enough of you for a whole lifetime, and that was behind a wall of glass." I retorted, he tried to sit up but, with a sweep of my hand, I bended him into a kneeling position with his hands behind him. The slight pain started in my fatigued brain and I knew it was going to worsen with each hero that came.

"Alright, Thor wasn't much of a fight. He didn't know what was going on." Marlo reported as the God fell into the room. I made the same movement with my hand and he was twisted into the same position as Tony.

"The archer is coming up in the elevator right now," Grace said, the elevator opened and an arrow came flying out as the doors opened. My reaction time wasn't the best so instead of stopping it I swerved it slightly off target, and instead of hitting my chest it hit my arm. The same side that he had hit before. I bit my lip and winced as the pain hit me. I clutched my arms and wrapped my fingers around the arrow, yanking it out as I had done before. That time, I couldn't help but let out the beginnings of a scream. I cut myself off and dropped the arrow; the archer was just loading up another one when I used my other hand to make a pulling motion. The bow flew from his grasp to the ceiling followed by his quiver, I then slowly brushed my hand past my leg and he fell to the ground. He slid next to the God and I put him in the same position as the other two. Like I had predicted, the pain worsened and there was still more to come.

"Really? Twice on the same arm?" I asked him, I applied pressure to the wound and clenched my jaw.

He shrugged and replied "I'm just that efficient."

"That's not what she said," Called Lux from a portal in the ceiling, Captain America dropped in before Marlo and Lux came through. I swept him up with the others and soon the elevator doors opened again to reveal Grace and Nara struggling to hold on to the red head. I dragged her down to her knees and soon all of the Avengers were on their knees with their hands behind their backs, staring up at us.

"Next time, Gra- Genie, make sure you have at least put a dent in them before you send them up," I scolded, showing Grace my new wound. Her eyes went wide and she threw her arms around me.

"I'm sorry!" She apologised, I slowly unravelled her from me and nodded. I stepped around the kneeling heroes and went to go stand next to the elevator. Lux began pacing in front of them.

"Well, you are probably wondering why I, we, have called you all here," She started, Stark nodded eagerly.

"We want information, what you had to do with our friend." Marlo said, stepping up to the heroes.

"All I knew was that there was an anonymous tipster that wanted this girl for something. I didn't get anything else." Tony said truthfully.

"So you didn't ask questions, genius?" Lux asked threateningly, they made eye contact and she stopped in front of him.

"Thank you and no. He sounded like he could rip my head off over the phone." He replied, Lux crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"So the invincible armoured Iron Man was scared of a guy over the phone?" Lux clarified, Tony shook his head. I sniggered and directed my gaze to the floor.

"No, I was just wary of him." He objected, Lux sniggered and continued pacing.

"Did you get her?" Nara asked hopefully.

"Yes we got her." The red head answered darkly, Captain America, Tony and Thor all stared at her.

"No, she got away. Remember?" The soldier said like he was trying to remind her, she shook her head.

"No, Barton and I caught up to her. We told you different to keep the information away from you." She said, correcting the now confused looking Captain.

"Oh, okay, so now you can't trust us?" Tony asked.

"That would technically be wrong to say since I never trusted you in the first place," She muttered.

"Okay! Back to the subject!" Lux shouted, waving her hands above her head.

"Shut up, the adults are speaking." Tony spat, everything went quiet. Lux opened a portal above his head, smiled and opened one below him. He fell through the bottom portal and came back through the top portal which made him fall into the bottom portal again leading him back to the top portal and sending him through the bottom portal. Over all, he just kept falling through the loop that Lux had created.

"Don't you just love the way video games influence real life?" She said wistfully, Grace looked at her.

"What game are you referring to?" She asked.

"Portal," Lux answered before turning back to the people in front of her and asking "Okay, so who was it all for?"

"Sergeant Major Axel Norman." Answered the archer, I whipped my head up and stared at him. All of my friends froze and Nara begun to turn white.

"Who?" I asked, wanting him to repeat the name just to confirm I wasn't going crazy.

"Sergeant Major Axel Norman. Why?" The red head repeated, Nara started backing away with her hand over her mouth. Grace rushed to her side to stop her from falling off the edge.

"Oh, shit..." Marlo murmured, she looked from the red head to Marlo and back again, then went to help Nara.

"Sergeant Major Axel Norman? What did he do with her when you gave her to him?" Lux said unsteadily.

"Apparently he-"

"Shhh!" Marlo hushed cutting of the archer in mid-sentence. Everyone fell silent as Marlo looked around the room.

"Hydro, open up a portal at the elevator door to the fifth floor." She ordered, Lux gave her a pained look. Marlo narrowed her eyes and Lux threw her hands up in surrender, a wavering portal opened up just beside me. It showed a door, brown and plain.

"Marlo, what's so scary about a door?" I asked her, she put a finger to her lips and pointed to the door.

_It's what's behind it that worries me._ She sent to me, I nodded and slid out a knife. I stood side on to the door with my back on the wall. I held up the knife and focused on some kind of sound behind it. A faint rustling was all I heard; I flung open the door and pointed my knife at the throat of the person behind it. It was the sixth member.

All he had to do was look over my shoulder to understand what was happening, I could tell he was smart enough for that. I stared at him for a second, trying to think of what he might do but he gave nothing away. I motioned with my knife for him to enter, he forwarded in and I closed the door behind him. At that moment, all three of Lux's portals closed making the door disappear and Tony come back to reality. Through the dizziness he saw the man enter and he smiled.

"Hi Bruce, come join the party. We invited some friends over, I hope you don't mind." He said, slurring slightly. I made the man kneel down and put his hands behind his back and just like the rest of them I held him in that position.

"Continue," Marlo stated to the archer. He looked more hesitant now than he had before but either way he went on.

"Apparently he was using her and others to make a new bioweapon to put on the market. Something a lot more stable than other ways." He said, finally finishing his sentence. Tony, Captain America, Thor and the mystery man (He was called doctor last time, wasn't he?) all stared at the two assassins in black who were deliberately avoiding their eyes.

"What do you mean bioweapon?" The man asked, the red head turned to him.

"We mean what we say; they were testing on her to make her into a weapon." She answered, not giving anything away but the fact that there was more to it than that.

I peeled away from my place next to the elevator door and went to stand next to Marlo; Lux came to join us slowly followed by Nara and Grace. The knife was still in my hand, I was twirling the handle around in my palm which kept reflecting the light.

"What happened to the shy little thing that I saw in the cage?" Tony asked, I turned my eyes to him.

"Screw fear, it's contagious." I hissed, tightening my grip on my knife.

"Yeah, and I think I know who caught it." Marlo added, gazing from one hero to the next. Suddenly, it was like it was an explosion in my brain. I stepped out on to the balcony, slipped my knife back into its pocket and clutched my head. It burned more than it already was; I dug my nails into my forehead and managed to choke out what sounded like some kind of scream. I looked over to Marlo who had her hands on her head... Almost like she could feel it too.

"What's wrong?" Grace cried as she came running to my side, I tried to tell her that I didn't know but all that came out was a groan. I tried to focus on each Avenger to see if they were doing anything. I didn't see anything wrong with them and the pain was worsening, burning like Nara was heating up my head. Then I saw the one on the end, the one that was hiding behind the door, his head was down like he was concentrating on something and his breathing was shallow. That was enough for me.

_The end one, calm him down or something. _I sent, even I could feel the pain in my thought. Marlo turned to look at the man on the end and closed her eyes. Slowly, the pain lifted and I dropped my hands to my sides. I bit my lip and took a deep breath as the pain disappeared. I stood and with Grace by my side went to check on Marlo, the pain had stopped for her as well. I stared at the Avengers who were all looking up, surprised at us.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded everyone remained silent, stunned at what had happened. That was it, whatever patience I had was gone. I slid out my knife again and knelt down in front of Tony. I put the knife to his throat, he tried to pull away but in the position I had put him in, there wasn't very far to go.

"What was that?" I asked, he shrugged and Marlo pulled me back onto my feet.

"Someone's down stairs, coming up." She breathed; I could tell she was quite weak at this point. I stared at the elevator, I walked towards it and Lux opened a portal. I opened the door that appeared in front of me and saw four black shapes at the end of the hall.

"Good one Lux." Grace muttered to her, gunfire sounded and bullets whizzed past my head but I did not move. I took two running steps towards them and threw the knife as hard as I could. Three got out of there quick enough but the forth, a girl, got pinned to the wall at the end by her ponytail. I strode towards her threateningly, each door I passed I would blow out of its hinges. My mouth had my teeth bared like some kind of wild animal. She eventually ripped her hair off the blade and ran for the steps; I reached it just as she was disappearing down the fire escape. I yanked the knife from the wall and held it in my hand.

I walked back through the splintered wood to the open living area and the portal closed behind me. I walked straight past the kneeling heroes and out onto the balcony, time for revenge. My friends followed me out, confused.

"Right, time for the revenge part of this mission. We are going to do manoeuvre 117, you guys remember that one?" I asked, I got nods from everyone and nervous looks were cast. I released my hold on the heroes and the archers bow fell from the ceiling. I made us all float up off the balcony and back slightly away from the edge.

"Welcome to hell, heroes." I called out but before they had any time to respond I lifted my arms above my head and the tower followed my command. My brain was turning to liquid, I swear. Even after all the training I had been doing, nothing could have properly prepared me for this. At first it was slow to rise but soon I got all of my strength behind it and it lifted up at least fifty metres off the ground. I made us float up and out so that we could see the shocked faces of the Avengers inside from a distance.

Then it begun, manoeuvre 117. I began to spin the tower while it was suspended, only slowly at first. Then patches of fire suspended all around the tower crackled to life thanks to Nara. Lux started making streams that ran through the fire, creating great clouds of scalding steam. Then Nara made fireballs crisscross their way through the tower, I could see a few narrowly miss the heroes inside. The tower begun to spin faster as Marlo shot shock waves at various angles at the tower which also narrowly missed the heroes.

Grace then created cannon balls made out of a very flammable material, Titanium. I watched as they sat in Nara's flame for a little while before lighting up and smashing through the tower. The scene was chaos, the tower spun faster and my head felt like it was going to die at any second. Then when I thought I could make the tower spin faster everything finally stopped. Literally, everything stopped.

Then I felt the sensation like I was being removed from my own body, like a tooth extraction. I kind of, in a way, fell out of my body. Like I was some kind of spirit looking at my body from another person's view. I saw myself, black coat, green shirt and black eyes... Nothing, no eyes, completely black. Everything came back to normal time but I didn't return to my body, I kept hovering. The tower slowed down and I realised that I must be on autopilot, like when I'm asleep. I dropped the tower and made my friends float down to the ground below but I didn't follow.

Instead I went into the ruins that were the tower and looked around at my work, the lights had blown, objects were charred and the heroes were scattered. I wasn't sure if they were alive or not but before I turned I saw a head lift. Captain America, his face smudged with ash and scratches. He coughed and I walked over to him, not taking my black eyes off him. I could tell he was scared, he was trying hard not to show it but he was.

"Why do you do this?" He coughed, squinting up at me. I pulled out my knife and knelt down to his level.

"Because you had something to do with the harm of my friend. I allocated myself one shot to do this." I rasped in a voice that wasn't mine, it was even more torturous than nails down a black board.

I stabbed the wall just above his head and he flinched from the sound. I stood up and walked towards the balcony, when I was on the edge I turned back around to face him with a flourish of my coat.

"You only have that chance, ya know?" I added before doing the same thing I did the last time I met him. I fell of the edge of the balcony and was swept away by unconsciousness.


	21. Chapter 21

I am so sorry for not updating as frqunetly as I had been. I've been so busy with assignments and outings and all that jazz. So, for you, I made this chapter extra long to make up for my absence. It's just abit of fun, I decided I should give them a break so here you are! Enjoy!

* * *

I could feel the world around me spinning as I sat up, I was in a bed back in the warehouse. It was only a small room but big enough to hold a bedside table, a double bed, a table with two chairs and a vanity. I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times to get my eyes to focus again. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stretched, I felt like I had slept for at least ten years. But it refreshed me that I had slept for so long. My coat was draped over one of the chairs at the table and my boots were on the ground at the end of my bed.

I smiled to myself and stood up; stretching again I walked out the door into the hallway. I must have been somewhere near a window because natural morning light was filtering through somewhere nearby. I looked to the left; hallway ran in front of me. I looked to the right; no changes in scenery. I bit my lower lip and decided to go left, see where it took me. I walked down the halls, peeping into almost every doorway there was. I finally found the familiarity of the changing room that we used last night.

That was when the memories came back, the information we got, the spinning tower, everything. And the part where I separated from my body like I was some kind of ghost. I definitely had to ask about that if I ever found the kitchen or the way out. I started off again at a comfortable jog, trying to find some kind of scent that could lead me to the kitchen.

I soon caught the faint smell of pancakes. I trotted out into a cross section with four different directions I could take, forwards, backwards, left or right. I sniffed the air and smiled when I found the scent was coming from the right. I ran down the right hall and followed my nose until I was seated at a dining table with a plate in front of me. Marlo was sitting at the other end with a cup of coffee in one hand and a magazine in the other, Lux was making the orange juice from her cup levitate slightly before dropping it back down and Grace and Nara were cooking the pancakes.

I sighed in contempt and my friends all whipped their heads towards me and stared for a moment before going back to their own thing.

"Hey sleepy head, how are ya?" Marlo asked going back to reading her magazine. I shrugged my response and glanced over my shoulder at the pile of pancakes coming towards the table.

We all stared as the pancakes were placed on the table and Grace and Nara took their seats. Lux made a grab for the first pancake but a sheet of steel blocked her hand. Grace's hand then darted out but she stalled with her fingertip just brushing the edge of the tower. She blinked a few times, smiled sweetly then put her hand back to her side.

"I think Marlo should have the first pancake!" She exclaimed dreamily, Marlo smirked and begun to reach for a pancake when I made three of the top pancakes float onto my plate. I picked up my knife and fork and was just about to cut into the first one when it burst into flames. I glared at Nara who smiled innocently at me. The war of pancakes went on for about ten minutes until we all had at least two on each plate. We all ate them, throwing cautious glances at each other when we finally finished. Lux and I took the plates to the sink and washed up while a conversation started up at the dining table.

"So, last night was fun," Grace begun, unsure if she should add anything else.

"Yeah, especially when Rose cracked and dropped us all," Lux said sarcastically, I threw an apologetic glance her way.

"By the way, I would like to know what had happened with all that," I commented, there was a brief pause as everyone tried to find an answer.

"We don't know, it happened to me to on that same night," Marlo said, I remembered seeing everything through Grace's eyes. How that horrid person left poor Nara like that. It was also quite hard to believe that it all happened in that one night.

"Yeah, I know, I saw it through Grace's eyes," I explained, everyone nodded their heads in understanding. Lux flicked water at me as we finished the last of the dishes and went to sit back down at the table.

"Did it feel like you had reached your limit? Your brain was hurting really badly one minute then it all stopped the next?" I questioned, Marlo nodded almost in surprise.

"Yeah, then it was like I watching myself from someone else's eyes," she continued, like she was reading my mind. Everyone else was listening intently around us.

"Then you just passed out," Lux said, jumping back into the conversation. Every head turned to her and she smiled nervously.

"Well you did, both of you!" She said, sounding like she was trying to defend herself against.

"I'm not saying we didn't." Marlo said calmly, then the table went silent.

"Did it hurt?" Nara started quietly; she glanced from Marlo to me. I nodded curtly and shuddered as I remembered the pain. It was awful, absolutely horrifying. Like my brain was turning to liquid inside my skull. But I didn't say any of that, although it's good to fear the time when you crack I don't want to scare her into oblivion. Anyway, she had already been through so much in just one day.

_It hurts like someone had shoved shards of glass into your feet then made you run a marathon. It hurts like someone sticking knives into your chest and making you breathe. It hurts like someone cutting you open just so that you can see yourself bleed to death._ I ranted, unknowingly not to myself. I saw Marlo's eyes meet mine then go back to the table.

"You know what? I'm tired and sad and I just wanna have some fun," Lux said, standing up. "Let's do something tonight, something fun, then have a rest day tomorrow because I do not want to crack like Marlo and Rose,"

Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at the sound of someone giving them a break. They all wanted it, I could see, but they didn't know how to go about it. Lux gave them that option, now we've taken it.

"So what are we going to do?" Grace asked quietly, all eyes turned away from one another as we thought about what we could do. Something that wouldn't attract attention since we were apparently all over the news. Lux clicked her fingers and stared at us like a light bulb had just gone off in her head.

"Let's make a game," she stated, I could hear everything rattling on in her brain, literally, but everyone else stared at her with confused expressions.

"You know, like, recreate a game," I said, they all leaned back in understanding.

"How is that going to work?" Marlo asked, I looked up at Lux for an answer to Marlo's question. She looked lost for a second before he eyes flicked to Grace.

"Grace can make what we need," She said finally, Grace looked surprised.

"Me? Why me?" She asked with her voice high and shrill.

"Because you can make anything!" Lux answered, biting back one of her insults. Nara nodded in agreement.

"It could work, what game are you planning on 'recreating'?" She asked, Lux smiled knowingly at her.

"How about Mario Kart?" It was a rhetorical question but I could already see Grace going to answer.

"Sure, but how am I meant to make four go karts if I don't even know what goes in them?" Grace asked, Lux was now bored with the idea of asking and answering questions. She rubbed her temples and stepped away from the table.

"I will tell you, we will meet back here at six o'clock. Think of any kind of vehicle from anywhere, any game, any movie, anywhere and we will make it." She finalised, with that she strolled out of the kitchen. I shrugged at Marlo, Grace and Nara, stood up and made my way out of the kitchen.

I was met by the labyrinth of halls that I had come along not too long ago. I didn't feel like going all the way back to my room through the confusing corridors so I found a nice, dim sitting area. There was a burgundy couch with beanbags scattered around, a few bookcases up against the wall and a heater for winter. I stumbled into there and sank down into a pile of beanbags.

I closed my eyes and forgot about the horrors that were sure to face me when I woke, I forgot about the pain I felt last night, I forgot about seeing Nara cowering beneath the horrible person that she was in a relationship with. If my brain would be in anyway still willing to create Hell for me when I woke up, I would give it a round of applause. I was gone from the world within minutes, no more consciousness. I wasn't even sure what the point was for me to wake up, probably just to have something to eat before going back into hibernation.

I could barely believe that I had dreamed, let alone what I had dreamed. I was on top of some kind of snowy mountain, right on the very tip. I felt a weight in my hand and saw a large kitchen knife with fresh blood dripping off it. I narrowed my eyes and examined the blade closer; it was quite beautiful in my eyes. The way the solidity of the blood mingled with the refracted light of the stainless steel. I was just about to run my fingers over the blood when a strangled cry came from farther down the mountain. I climbed off the tip to go and have a look at who it was. A man, with fiery red hair, had curled himself into a shivering ball with a growing red patch on the front of his shirt.

Now I'm not exactly Sherlock Holmes, but it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that I had stabbed him and the blood on the knife was his. I smiled at the knife, then at the helpless man with the stain on his shirt. _Time to end his life. _I thought to myself, I couldn't believe that I had just thought that. I had no idea who the person was and instead of helping him I wanted to kill him. I have never killed anyone in my life, not anyone directly anyway. And I couldn't think of a time when I had killed someone indirectly either. So I dropped the knife in the snow and felt it slice through my foot. It was like it had punished me for not using it to kill him.

But I didn't care, I didn't follow that voice and that was all that mattered. I sighed as I woke up, fully rested and unfazed by the dream slash nightmare I had had. I heard objects around me drop to the floor, when I stretched and looked around, though, everything was still intact. The worst damage was that a few books had fallen out of the bookcase. I stood up, smiled and stretched again. I walked out of the room just as Marlo passed by. We greeted each other and walked towards the dressing room.

"Have you thought of anything yet?" I asked her with a yawn, she gave me a glance and shook her head. I nodded absentmindedly as we rounded a corner leading to another hallway.

"You?" She returned, I hadn't thought of anything at all.

"It's a surprise," I lied, a grin stretched over her lips as we turned into a room. The familiarity of the wardrobes and separate changing rooms greeted me. Nara had just rushed into a changing room with a pile of clothes in her arms. Marlo's eyes flicked to her shoulder a split second before someone grabbed my arm.

"I didn't see you guys-" I flung the person against the wall and whipped my head around. I rushed to Lux's side as she tried to get up.

"Don't do that, Lux! You scared me," I made her float back onto her feet. She steadied herself as her feet returned to the ground.

"Right, don't scare you, got it," She said breathlessly, she held her head for a second before straightening up again. I then noticed that Grace had witnessed the whole thing and was looking from me to Lux. We forwarded into the changing rooms picked out our clothes and got changed. I took a shower before I got changed; rinsing away whatever dirt I had collected from last night. I sighed, washing myself until I was red raw but smelled like a coconut. I got out, pulled on my black tank top and jeans, pulled on my socks and dark blue boots and went back out into the main part of the room. I brushed my hair and left it out, just in case I put a hair band on my wrist for future use.

Nara came out with her blonde hair brushed and her fringe clipped up with a red, sparkly bow clip. She had on a dark pink top with sleeves that came up to her elbows and bright red denim shorts with a black belt that doubled around her waist. I almost shook my head when I saw the black canvas shoes on her feet.

Lux came bounding out of a room full of steam which made her entrance all the more effective. Her dark grey long sleeved top matched her dark denim jeans and her burgundy hair was tossed up into a ponytail. At least she wore sensible shoes, black leather, ankle high boots. I saw her eyes got to Nara's shoes and she shook her head violently.

"You're wearing those? When we're going to be racing at high speeds? You're crazy," She commented as she came to join me on a couch near the door. Nara's brown eyes revealed worry even though she shrugged. She walked over to us, tripped over the toe of her shoe and went sailing into the couch.

"You can't even walk in them!" Lux exclaimed, Nara huffed in frustration and reluctantly went to go change her shoes.

Grace came out with her purple hair tied up in a ponytail. She had denim shorts with a picture of some kind of key on it in the corner. Her shirt was a nice light green with an apple on it. She wore black sneakers which, at least, were Lux approved. I threw her a glance; she was nodding like she was in a fashion show judge model after model as they came out.

Marlo came out and boy was she scary. Her dark brown hair had been dried and given a kind of wispy look around her face as it flowed down her shoulders. The commando style boots she wore had many laces and buckles, on the sides were silver studs that gleamed in the light. She wore ripped denim jeans and a dark purple tank top and that same halved kind of jacket that she wore last night.

I nodded at all of us once Nara came back out with some sneakers on. Lux and I went over to the wardrobe and grabbed a couple of jackets. I slid a black leather one on and heard a faint hum. I looked down to see electric blue strips running up and down my arms and back glowing. They were also on my shirt, thin but visible. It looked like something from Tron.

"Whoa!" I cried, I examined the jacket as everyone came closer to look.

"It works! Just like my portal gun, it works!" Lux screamed, jumping up and down. She laughed, what was meant to be evilly, and rushed up to my side.

"It works!" She whispered in my ear, I laughed and shook my head. Then the smile fell from my face.

"Wait, what do you mean 'portal gun'?" I asked, Lux bit her lip and scratched her head.

"Well, you know how I made those portals? And I said I did it with my awesome powers? Yeah, I lied..." She explained nervously, I saw a smirk appear on Nara and Grace's faces.

"So, how did you do it?" Marlo asked, pulling on two fingerless gloves.

"I discovered how to make portals, so I perfected the technology and made a few discrete laser systems to fire them." She mumbled, obviously embarrassed. Grace and Nara crossed their arms. Lux raised her chin defiantly.

"That is all you are getting out of me!" She cried, a snowball materialised in Grace's hand and she tossed it at Lux. It hit her directly in the face. We all strolled out of the changing rooms and made our way out of the warehouse. The sky was already turning pink with night chasing it down. Lux shivered as she took the lead, giving Grace a look that said 'revenge will be mine'.

"Where are we going?" Nara asked, no one replied but simply followed Lux who had stopped shivering. The sky changed from its beautiful pinky orange colour to a more burnt orange-grey shade. Stars had begun to shine when Lux finally stopped; we were on the very edge of town where barely any lights reached. We were standing in the car park of a closed up mall. I looked at Lux then back at the structure.

"We're going in there?" Marlo said disbelievingly, Lux nodded and strode up to the front door. It was then that I noticed we all still had our ear pieces in, Lux pressed what looked like very small buttons on hers and the doors to the mall slid open. Bright lights flickered on revealing a food court with multiple restaurants. We skittered in and stood in front of all the tables and chairs around us.

"Right, cameras have been turn off," Lux confirmed, I held out my hand and made a sweeping motion with it. All of the tables and chairs skidded to the sides leaving the clear polished floor leading down to the escalators. They went down to a separate floor, probably with more businesses selling things like clothes and hair products. Lux fiddled with her ear piece and a blue map came up in the corner of my right eye. It was a floor plan for the ground floor of the mall. If I blinked twice in a row it would show me the second floor which I kept on.

"Now, we need vehicles, Grace is in charge of that," Lux stated, looking at Grace. She nodded in agreement, we made a line and Grace stood in front of us.

"Nara?" She begun, Nara was quick with her answer.

"A cherry red motorbike, please," She asked, Grace nodded and waved her hands in the spot in front of Nara. Particles begun to form and twist around until a shining, sleek, cherry red motorbike was sitting in front of Nara. To Lux's surprise, all the parts were there. Grace, upon seeing Lux's expression, smiled and said "I'm not completely useless."

"Marlo?" She asked, Marlo thought hard about this one. Her eyes widened when she came to her answer.

"A 1969 Dodge Charger," She replied, she smiled as the bulky muscle car materialised in front of her. She stroked the bonnet and nodded her thanks to Grace who then moved on to me.

"Rose?" It was my turn and I had no idea what I wanted, I looked around me for something. I looked down at myself and smiled.

"The Tron Light Cycle, please," I said, that was followed by many 'Ahhs' from my friends. Grace looked almost reluctant to make my bike, but she did anyway. I looked at the magnificent piece of machinery in front of me and when I touched the handle, the white lines on the bike glowed blue like the stripes on my jacket. But as soon as I took my hand away the light would go out.

"Lux?" Grace asked, Lux looked at Grace and smiled. She had no idea what to choose either. She pretended to busy herself by fiddling with the ear piece but when Grace sighed impatiently she knew she had to come up with something. Lux shrugged and scratched her head. Her eyes suddenly sparkled as the idea came to her.

"A 2013 Lamborghini Veneno, they only made three of them in the entire world!" Lux answered; just as Grace started moving her hands around to make it Lux waved it off and screamed "Wait!" Grace huffed in frustration and glared at Lux.

"A 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish, yeah I like that one better." Lux nodded in confirmation and Grace made the car appear in front of her.

Finally it was Grace's turn, a beautiful black Harley Davidson Night rod came together in front of her. Helmets dropped onto our vehicles, Lux and Marlo had to catch theirs before they hit the bonnet. Marlo and Lux had ones that just covered their heads whereas Nara, Grace and I had helmets that covered almost all of our face except for a narrow strip in front of our nose. The visor on ours made them look like helmets that you would where it fighter jets.

As soon as I slid my helmet on and slipped the visor over my eyes, everything was alive. The blue map wasn't just confined to my right eye any more, it stretched over the whole visor with a few boxes in the corners. One of them had a view of about five metres behind me. There was a box with three icons with a number three beneath them. One of them looked like a banana peel, the second was something like a cloud and the third was a black stain of some kind. Also, with the helmet coming over my mouth, it meant the microphone to the ear piece had been connected to there. I could hear the sound of my friends around me through the surround sound in my helmet.

"This is going to be so cool!" Nara exclaimed, I laughed at the truth of that statement. I could see Lux moving from one vehicle to the other through the faint transparency of the visor.

"What are you doing, Lux?" I asked, she briefly looked up at me from her spot under her Aston Martin.

"Well, since I haven't been able to rig up any sensors for picking up those rainbow floating boxes that you see in the game and get upgrades, I've decided to install the upgrades straight into the vehicles." She explained, I could see her hammer a few things into the bottom of the car.

"You see the icons in the box just off to the right?" She asked, crawling out and wiping her hands on her long sleeved top. I nodded, she moved on to my Light Cycle.

"They each represent the upgrades I'm putting in. The one that looks like a cloud is where if you activate it, a cloud of red dust spurts out from your car, temporarily confusing anyone behind you. The one that looks like a black smudge is an oil slick; you get the general idea of that one. The last one, the one that looks like a banana peel, is literally a banana peel." I stared at her with that last sentence, she stared back.  
"What? I thought I might keep it original," She objected, I smiled at her and she stood up, obviously finished with her tinkering.

"Okay guys, this is how it works. Before you guys got here I had mapped out a course, a red line should appear on you maps right now signalling what the track is," As she said that, the top-view map disappeared to be replaced with an electric blue view of my surroundings. The top-view map had retreated to a box in the top left corner. True to Lux's word a red line appeared on the top-view map and in front of me like someone had painted it there.

"There will be many opportunities to overtake someone as I have installed half pipes around the place. Since your vehicles don't have fuel, Grace will make ten containers. Five will have enough fuel to get you through the race, two will have just over half and the other three will contain fudge," Lux continued, Grace waved her hands and sure enough about ten metres behind us appeared ten, red, opaque containers.

"Rules are simple, first one to complete three laps wins," Lux concluded. We all raced to our vehicles and stood beside them.

"Three!" Nara called, Lux nudged me and I turned my head slightly towards her.

"I tampered with Grace's bike," She whispered, my eyes went wide and I had to resisted the urge to turn and look at her.

"Two!" Nara called, what did Lux do? I knew she wouldn't do anything to completely put Grace out of the race.

"Oh yeah, and one more thing guys. No powers!" Lux cried.

"One!" Nara screamed but Lux was already pounding towards the containers. It went off; I was sprinting towards the closest container. Right behind me was Marlo and Nara had already passed by Lux. I slid to a halt and picked up the container I had my eyes on. It was heavy so it could have been a full fuel one or fudge. I shook it up and down and it made a sound like shaking molasses. Fudge. I dropped the container and moved onto the next one, Grace had already found one, same with Nara and they were both running back. I didn't care what container I got any more, so I picked up the container I had moved to and ran for my bike.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I stopped in front of my bike, I searched for the hole to put the fuel in and found it near the back of the bike. I screwed open the lid and twisted off the lid for the container, I sighed as the smell of gasoline hit my nose, at least I didn't get another fudge one. I poured the fuel into the bike and threw away the container, I closed the lid of the fuel tank and that's when we all heard the first engine start. It was the rumble of Nara's cherry red motorbike. I looked up to see her resting her hands on the handle bars and kicking up the stand. Grace was not about to be left behind, she threw her container behind her and clambered onto her bike.

With a roar, her engine started and the two kicked off together. Now it was my turn, I threw my leg over the other side and straddled the bike. The white stripes glowed blue, the engine hummed to life and I smiled. Marlo was filling up her car whilst Lux was only just arriving back at hers. The way I sat on my bike was more like I was leaning forwards to the point where I was almost laying on my stomach. As soon as my feet left the ground, I revved the engine and I was streaming behind Nara and Grace. It took me a little bit to work out how to steer smoothly and all of the other controls.

By the time I had reached the escalator I had to go down, I had everything under control. I had so much speed by the time I reached it that I had launched off of the first floor straight onto the second floor. But I was heading straight for a wall; I had to turn right so I tried to yank the handlebars right. Instead of running into the wall, I sped up a half pipe Lux had installed. The speed that I had accumulated forced my bike to do a kind of corkscrew manoeuvre in the air before landing and speeding off to catch up to Grace and Nara. I realised I was holding my breath through that whole thing and sucked in a deep breath.

I glanced at the top-view map in the top left corner and saw Nara and Grace battling out for first place. I sped past the illuminated businesses at incredible speeds yet when it came to a corner, none of my wheels spun out from underneath me. I rounded a corner and saw the pair of friends ramming into each other as another corner came. I narrow my eyes and made the bike speed up. I regretted it.

"Take this!" I heard from Nara through the helmet and she released a patch of oil in her wake. Grace gasped and was caught right in the thick of it, spinning and spiralling out of control. I raced straight into the oil and straight passed Grace but spinning none the less. The polished floor didn't help anything. In one of the turns, I saw Lux drift straight through the slick clearing a path for the muscle car Marlo was in. I slammed into a wall and cursed.

"Oh, wipe-out!" Marlo cried, I shook my head and tried to get out of the oil. Nothing happened, the back wheel spun but not the front. I heard the screech of tires behind me and knew Grace was recovering, I had to be quick. I gave everything I had to the accelerator and shot out of the oil slick on my back wheel. I even out onto both wheels and swung around the corner. In the view behind me, Grace was catching up fast when all of a sudden...

_CLUNK_

"What the hell was that?" She screamed into the helmet. I glanced at the top-view map at the three pinpoints ahead of us. I followed the red line up another escalator which led back up to the first floor. The shops around me looked more expensive than previous ones.

_CLANK BANG CLICK _

"Hey, what's going on?" Grace cried, that was followed by a whole heap of other shifting sounds and her surprised screams. Then Lux's laughter could be heard through the comm.

"Yeah, Grace I might have tampered with you bike..." She said, there was an enraged yell from Grace as she over took me... In a go kart? I had to do a double take as Grace zoomed past me in a go kart identical to Peach's one in Mario Kart. I laughed into the helmet as she sped away from me leaving me in last place.

"Ha! My turn, bitches!" Lux crowed, there was a pause then two of the pinpoints slowed down and one of the smashed into the other. I turned a corner and a fading cloud of dust met me. I shifted right upon seeing the crash between Nara and Marlo on the left. I sped past them and followed the red line out of two automatic sliding doors into the car park. There I could see Grace sneaking up behind Lux's Aston Martin. I put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and sped up until I could have reached out and touched Grace's go kart.

"You, have been demoted!" Grace screeched at Lux who had just noticed that Grace was beside her. She laughed at the little go kart and sped launched forward. I saw movement in my reverse vision and spied Marlo zooming up to me. Grace dropped behind Lux and looked like she was going to try over take from the other side. I saw my chance and steered off to the right, letting Marlo pass by me and ram into Grace. I surged forwards and ended up over taking Lux, Marlo and Grace.

"Suckers!" I yelled as I passed them by, I laughed at myself as I left them in the dust. I looked around at my surroundings; the only light in the car park came from my bike and my jacket. It was quite beautiful actually, how the electric blue contrasted with the black of the bitumen and grey metal streetlights. I was so engrossed with the scenery that I didn't see the island in front of me. I was forced up into the air and time slowed. I had wondered when that was going to happen again.

From underneath me, I saw Nara drifting on her cherry red motorbike. She looked up at me and winked, and just like that I had gone from first back to second. Time sped up; I smiled and shook my head. We turned around the broad corner coming back around to the front doors we had come through. Nara pulled a wheelie just as the doors slid open and she completed her first lap. As I passed through the doors, two sets of number popped up in the top right corner of my visor. One of them had the position I was in and the other had the number of laps I had to go.

I was flying towards the escalator and I remembered last time when I launched off the first floor and almost slammed into the wall. I slowed down slightly and this time just skimmed over the escalator, not completely leaving the ground. I heard the screech of tires behind me and saw the 1969 Dodge Charger closing in. Unfortunately, Marlo had made the same mistake I had on the first lap and completely over shot the escalator. But, I could tell she was doing the exact same thing as me. Just as I passed by the half pipe I had jumped on the previous lap, Marlo came roaring up it and over my head. I raised my eyes to the sky to see her shocked face framed by the helmet she wore. She landed, her back wheels skidding out from her. But she recovered and was soon racing after Nara.

I could also hear Lux catching up, no doubt with Grace in tow. So I did the first thing that came to me and sent out a banana peel. I didn't bother looking behind to see if it had worked and focused on the two pinpoints in the top-view map. Marlo had over taken Nara and was streaking on ahead. A few scrapping sounds behind me signified that my banana peel idea had worked.

Nara was coming into my view along with yet another half pipe that I didn't notice on my first lap. A plan came to me but I would have to be quick with it. The half pipe was on a corner which was perfect. I was coming up behind Nara; she saw me and released a dust cloud. I was caught in the centre and was left coughing and spluttering.

"Didn't think you could get me that easily, did you?" She asked mockingly, huffed and trying to see through the dust. Suddenly, she turned. I tried to mimic her action but I was drifting on the half pipe, the sudden turn caused me to spin out. So instead of exiting the turn simply and without fuss, I was spinning up the half pipe and out onto the stretch. I didn't dare stop even as I exited the spin; I then discovered I had somehow passed by Nara.

The colours of the passing shop front confused me slightly but after a few moments I was fine and on the hunt for Marlo. I smiled to myself when I heard Nara's surprised cry. I heard a revving sound behind me and saw Lux over take Nara by steering up onto a half pipe, pushing the accelerator and curving back down onto flat ground. Lux was now pushing to get to me, and I was scared.

"I'm coming for you, Rose!" She screamed, I put all I could into the accelerator and the hum got louder. I barely made it around the corner to the second escalator leading up and floored it. With the added momentum of the escalator I was sling shotted to the top. I flew over Marlo's head and landed cleanly in front of her she swerved right and I followed, blocking her. She swerved to the left and I copied, I saw the perfect opportunity to stall her. An upcoming half pipe. This one must have been one of the longest ones Lux had put in.

I bent right a little and Marlo saw the opening, she jumped forward and I swerved to block her off. Marlo being Marlo wasn't about to be pushed around and turned onto the half pipe. My plan was coming together; I was on flat ground while Marlo was on the slight slant of the half pipe. I just had to keep her there until the end then... A flash of pink blurred past me, Grace. I let down my guard and chased after her, Marlo would have to wait. I was chasing her down just as Lux cruised past me at almost the same speed. I shook my head as she passed me by. Following in her wake was Nara, getting all the wind resistance she needed from Lux. The she suddenly shot out from her place behind Lux and zoomed straight into second.

The expensive shops around me were giving way to the sliding doors that led back out into the car park. I laughed as yet another oil slick appeared in front of me, my laughter stopped as another one spilled. And another. Lux was half laughing half screaming as she spun out and I passed her, following her tracks closely as to avoid spinning out myself.

"I have taught you well, Grasshopper," Lux said to Grace, she sighed.

"You taught me nothing," She retorted, Marlo, Nara and I laughed at that comment.

"It was amazing that I actually avoided your oil spill," Nara said, I smiled as got her back in my sights.

"Yeah, well try and avoid this!" I cried as I sent out my last banana peel, it flew over my head and landed right in front of Nara as she passed through the doors out into the car park. I weaved my way around her and came out into the black night of the car park. Off in the distance I could see Grace. I was coming up behind her when all of a sudden.

_CLUNK_

"Oh, you're kidding! Not again!" Grace squealed, this sudden sound shocked me and allowed Lux to pass me. I huffed in frustration and over took the slowing go kart of Grace.

_THUNK BANG CRASH CHINK CLICK_

I couldn't afford to look behind me to see what was going on because I was so close to Lux, but I knew something big was going on. Grace's scream was higher than the last time which worried me, but I couldn't lose focus now.

"Holy man, Lux! You crazy person!" Came Marlo's surprised voice through the comm, I let my eyes briefly flick to the reverse vision box but Grace was too far away to be seen. I smiled as I swiftly over took Lux and sped through the doors onto my third and final lap.

I decided it was time to use some of my other upgrades, even better, in a combination. I sent out a dust cloud and almost straight after, an oil slick. I smiled as I heard Marlo and Lux cry out in surprise.

"Well played, Rose, well played," Lux admitted. I zoomed on ahead to the escalator; I skimmed down it and rounded the corner. I was greeted, for the third time, the lit up, colourful, empty businesses of the mall. Just then I heard laughter from Lux and shocked gasps from Marlo and Nara. I looked at the top-view map and saw all four pinpoints coming together behind me; the one at the back was bigger than the others.

"Lux, I am going to kill you!" Grace screamed through her helmet.

"I do believe you would," Lux giggled, I looked in the reverse vision box just as I turned the corner and caught a glimpse of what was behind me. I could barely believe it and had to check again when the pinpoints were close enough. Marlo and Nara was ramming each other with Lux right behind them and... Was that a monster truck? Grace was up in the cabin of a purple monster truck with Mickey Mouse ears on the roof!

"Lux! You madman!" I exclaimed, Marlo dropped back and Nara rocketed past me with Marlo on her tail. I gasped at what happened behind me, Grace literally drove over Lux. Lux's Aston Martin disappeared under the belly of the monster truck. Lux looked up with wide eyes as the monster truck over took her, literally over her.

I revved the engine and sped up to escape the monster truck. I turned another corner and narrowly avoided flying up the half pipe again. I saw Nara up in front of me and zoomed past her with one fluent motion. She looked up as Grace passed over her and left her behind.

My breath was coming in shallow breaths, it was just Marlo, Grace and I because there would be no way that Nara or Lux could overtake a monster truck. I launched up the escalator and the expensive shops came up to meet me. I saw the monster truck struggle up the escalator and the hope of having a chance flooded over me. Of course I would still have to get past Marlo, but I was coming up to her. And fast. I looked up in the top-view map and saw that the route had changed slightly so instead of going through the doors we had to make it to the end of the car park.

Suddenly, Marlo twisted violently so that her car was facing me. She threw it into reverse and smirked. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, if she wanted to play this game then so be it.

"I'm ninja," Marlo stated earning another eye roll from me.

"Yeah, whatever," I retorted, she sighed and took her hands briefly off the steering wheel. Then her smirk fell to be replaced with a nervous grin, she switched her muscle car back to the front and threw it back into drive. I was slightly puzzled by why she had one this but when I looked up and saw Grace passing over me I understood. I pushed the engine, I pushed it to it limit but I couldn't get out. So I admitted defeat as we came out of the mall onto the final stretch of the car park. I dropped back but I wasn't prepared to come last.

I kept my place in third as I watched the battle unfold between Grace's monster truck and Marlo's 1969 Dodge Charger. Marlo was cutting it tight in front of Grace's massive wheels, she was swerving this was and that. The funny thing was that Grace was copying her movements, almost as if Marlo was a magnet and Grace was the attracted end. Then, and I couldn't see it very clear but I knew what had happened, as Marlo closed in on the finishing line Grace's wheel tapped Marlo's car and she spun out. The spot was free and Grace took the opportunity, roaring across the finishing line.

An excited scream came from her as she did; she slammed the truck into park and climbed out of it. Marlo crawled across the finishing line; I slowed down as I closed in on it and Nara and Lux were coming in behind. We all got out and congratulated Grace on her win, she was so excited. I smiled as she hugged everyone, she looked so happy.

"Sorry about tampering with your car," Lux apologised, Grace gazed at her and grinned.

"Don't be, it's what got me first," She said with a giggle, there was the familiar _CLUNK BANG CLICK_ from behind Grace and her Mickey Mouse monster truck kind of melt down into the Harley Davidson Night Rod that she had started with. Grace smiled at Lux and went over the bike. She stroked the handlebars and sat down on the seat.

I was just about to go over to her when something at a high speed bounced of the bitumen. I looked down in the direction of the sound and saw, not too far away, a bullet.


	22. Chapter 22

"We've been found!" Lux cried, spinning around and bolting back to her Aston Martin, we all followed her actions and raced back to our vehicles. I saw Marlo look behind her and her eyes went wide.

"SHIELD agents," she called as I straddled my bike. I saw Lux fiddling with the earpiece again and a red line appeared on the top-view map but not in front of me.

"Alright guys, I just made a new route. Basically, first one back to the warehouse with out giving away our hide out or getting captured wins," she explained, suddenly she took off with Grace on her heels. I revved my engine and ducked as gunfire started from behind.

"By the way, you can use your powers now," I heard Lux added casually through the earpiece in my helmet. I zoomed off through the dust that Nara had kicked up and I heard Marlo not too far behind me.

Nara turned left out of the car park, I decided to go right. I came speeding out onto the main road and almost rammed into a car. Cars honked their horns but I ignored them. I followed the flow of the traffic and gradually slowed my speed until I was going slightly faster than the cars around me. Just when I was starting to think I had lost them, I catch a movement in the rear vision box. A black motorbike with the unmistakable logo of SHIELD printed on the side. I forgot everything about the element of surprise, squeezed into a gap beside a car and took off as fast as I could go.

"I got two on my tail," Nara informed sounding a little flustered.

"I got three, I win," Lux stated superiorly.

I turned down a narrow street; it was empty so I floored it. I completely missed the 'One Way' sign and didn't noticed it until a truck came speeding at me from the opposite direction. I gasped; there was no way I could swerve around it and no way under. I had to go over. I reared up on one wheel and by now the truck driver was beeping his horn wildly.

I closed my eyes and willed the bike to go up, I felt the back wheel leave the ground and heard a loud honk as I passed over the truck. I landed safely on both wheels, opened my eyes and continued along the street. I soon burst out into another busy road, not as busy as the last but coming very close.

Just before I exited the 'One Way' street I felt something fling off my back wheel. They were right behind me. I had to step on it. I was so engrossed in getting away that I barely noticed as I flew past Marlo. She looked like she was having a few problems of her own. Suddenly, a loud hiss came over the sound system in my helmet. I blinked a couple of times trying to refocus on my route after that surprise.

"What on Earth was that?" Marlo shouted into the comm, I absent mindedly shrugged.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm just riding around a dolls factory with two agents on my back, nothing much," Grace answered, followed by yet another hiss.

"I'm coming to help you," Nara yelled, I weaved around the cars and saw the lights getting brighter in the distance.

"Lux, you do know that to make it back most of us will have to go through the city," I said glancing at me rear view momentarily. The motorbike was gaining on me.

"Actually, judging by your positions, all of us will have to go through the city," Lux corrected. Then she added, "Ha! One down, two to go." I almost cursed as I saw Marlo's muscle car launch out of a dark alleyway in front of me.

I forgot about the agent behind me temporarily and reared up on my back wheel, I came close to a car in front of me and brought my front wheel down on the front. With a little extra help from my telekinesis, I brought my back wheel up as well. I was about to send myself flying when I felt a sharp pain just under my right ribcage. I'd been hit. I shook my head and put all I could into the engine, I flew off the roof of the car like I had gone up a ramp and soared over Marlo's head. I then made a sharp right, a left then another right and before I knew it I was back in the heart of New York.

I weaved around cars, not caring for the noise they made when I spotted two black bikes pursuing an Aston Martin. Lux. I smiled as I edged my way up until I was almost behind the two black bikes. I narrowed my eyes on the bike closest to me, suddenly it stopped. The rider cried out in surprise and quickly jumped out of the way as the bike got smashed against the front of an oncoming car. The rider quickly ran for the footpath as I zoomed past.

"Shit!" Marlo cursed, I laughed quietly.

"What?" I asked.

"I've been shot!" she exclaimed, my stomach dropped instantly and I heard someone gasp.

"Where?" came Nara's concerned voice.

"Just in the arm, I think I'll be alright," Marlo replied, I sighed, at least it wasn't the chest.

I looked up in the top-view box and saw the direction of the red line leading to the warehouse. I could take the shot and leave Lux to fight for herself. After all, she does have powers of her own. I shook my head, this is serious, these people have guns, they've already shot Marlo and me, they mean business.

I zoomed past the car I was hiding behind and up to the other black bike. The rider had to do a double take as I sped right up beside them. We were there, right next to each other, just staring at one another. I thought this would keep going for ages until the rider pulled out a gun and aimed it at me.

She pulled the trigger and I waited for impact but it didn't come, the rider had aimed lower down and missed me. I saw that this was because her wheels were melting down and becoming transparent. Soon the whole bike was wavering and the wheels had completely disappeared. It started to slow down and the last look I got was that the bike had turned to water.

I was about to say my thanks to Lux when a massive explosion went off. It chattered the teeth in my head and rattled the bones in my arms even though it was just coming through the comm. I looked from side to side, no sign of an explosion. I was about to ask what had happened when I got my answer.

"I keep forgetting never to mix fire and gasoline," Nara said quietly with a cough at the end. Marlo sighed and you could practically hear Lux face palm through the comm.

I shook my head and was about to over take Lux when she moved to block me, I could she her shake her head at me through her rear view mirror. I tried the other side but she blocked me again. I was about to go back the other way when I saw a street off to the side. I smiled and got ready to go for it. As it came up, I turned down it and saw Grace on her Night Rod going back the other way. I shook my head and smiled at myself.

"Hey, where did you go?" Lux asked into the comm, my smiled got wider as I turned out onto another street. I took in my surroundings and saw that I wasn't too far from the warehouse. I turned down the closest street to the warehouse and things started to quiet down. I nodded, at this speed I was going to be there in no time at all. I was confident that I was going to come first.

Until Nara came speeding out of an alleyway, a faint cloud of smoke followed her and she took the lead. The dock came into view and with it, the warehouse. She was going faster than me and skidded around the corner. The first place was hers as she rolled to a stop outside the front. I followed her action of skidding around the corner and coming to a halt. She leaped off her bike, kicked down the stand and managed to trip over it. She was aimed to go face first but I stretched out my hand and she stopped in mid air. I smiled as I lifted her back onto her feet; she brushed herself off and smiled with embarrassment.

I pulled my helmet off and swung my legs off my bike. She stepped up to me and we hugged, I could feel her smile against my shoulder.

"Thank you," she whispered, hugging tighter. That's when the pain of the shot came rushing back to me. Nara pulled away upon feeling me tense and looked me up and down. She looked down at her hand and I followed her eyes, smeared red. She looked at me with a face that could only be described as horror filled. She opened her mouth to say something when I heard an engine from behind us coming in.

I turned around and put on a smile as Marlo rolled in; Nara put her hand behind her back and gave me a stern look. Once she had stopped, Marlo turned off the engine, pulled off her helmet and got out of the car. She walked up to us and grinned, then showed us her arm. There was a bloody hole near her shoulder and I could tell it hurt badly. I took her arms gently and led her inside.

"I've got at least some medical knowledge, I might be able to help out until we get you to a hospital." I said quietly, avoiding Nara's piercing eyes I went inside with Marlo in tow. I led her, more like she led me, to a first aid room. I sat her in the chair that was in there and looked at the wound. I bit my lip, I wasn't exactly a doctor but I did do a bit of biology back when I was at university. That then led on to homeostasis and the human body, so I had some idea.

"Well, the bleeding isn't very heavy so the bullet didn't pierce the brachial artery," I muttered, Marlo looked at me questioningly.

"It's the main artery in your arm, " I explained, she nodded and went to staring at the wall. My fingers went to my necklace and started twirling the pendant around.

"It wouldn't be too handy to have a bullet in your arm, would it?" I asked Marlo, she shook her head without taking her eyes off the wall. I held my hand out over the wound, a few centimetres from the surface. I slowly pulled away and Marlo hissed, I stopped immediately and she looked at me.

"It's alright, go on I'm fine," she reassured, I stared at her for another moment before returning my eyes to my hand. I begun pulling away again and Marlo winced. I kept going as the bullet slowly slid out of her arm. Once it was fully out, I relaxed my hand and made the bullet float to the floor. Marlo smiled at me gratefully and was about to stand up to leave but I shook my head.

"I want to try something else," I said to her, she at me questioningly. I blinked a few times, making the slight waver of my vision come back together to make a solid picture. I held her arm gently and focused on the hole. I needed to do what I did to my cardigan, thread it back together. She was watching the hole as well, waiting for something to happen. I narrowed my eyes; this was going to be tough.

I could feel it working because there was a slight pain in my head, the familiar dull pain that I always got when I was working just a bit over average. I saw something twitch in the hole, but dismissed it. Something flicked again and the pain had begun to throb. Marlo was staring intently at the hole now, like she was using her powers on it. Then, through the blood of the wound, I saw the skin wriggling.

"You may want to look away," I warned her, she didn't hesitate to go back to staring at the wall. It was working exactly like when I had patched up my cardigan, I smiled at my work. The hole quickly filled with new skin and soon there was nothing but a patch of skin slightly paler than the rest of her arm. I let go of her arm and grinned at Marlo.

"Is it done?" she asked with a slightly shaking voice, I nodded and walked out of the room. I was walking back to the entrance when suddenly Marlo came up from behind and hugged me.

"Thank you so much!" she cried, we walked back to the entrance together to see Lux giving Nara and Grace a performance with what looked like a kind of string of water. She was making it fly around her, swirling it around in the air, splitting it in two and trying to juggle it and all other sorts of things. Marlo and I waited until Lux was finished when we called everyone inside.

I asked Lux to tell me how to navigate around this confusing place we now basically called home. "More of a home/head quarters/scheming place/hang out/night club" as Lux called it. I discovered that the warehouse was as much of a labyrinth as I first thought it was. It was all really quite simple; Lux told me it was kind of a grid.

"Just think of Tron, Rose, and you'll be fine," she said, kind brushing me away as she entered the kitchen after dropping off Nara at the change rooms, Marlo at her office (a music studio that Lux had made with soundproof walls) and Grace at the art room.

"But The Grid is a massive city in a video game, this is a mess of halls and rooms that someone could easily get lost in," I objected, pouring myself a glass of orange juice. She had just brought my understanding of this place back to square one, confusion.

"Exactly," Lux answered, I squinted at her, trying to figure out what it meant but didn't find an answer. I sipped my orange juice, blinked to focus my swimming vision and leaned against the counter. Lux cleared her throat and peered at me.

"You all right?" she asked me cautiously, I nodded. I felt myself slouching and straightened up. I gulped down the rest of the orange juice and moved to clean the glass. I heard Lux gasp; I swung around and saw her staring at me. No, at my waist. I immediately remembered my gunshot wound. Lux rushed over to the side the wound was on and looked at it.

"Why didn't you tell?" she asked, I shrugged and she shook her head. I motioned for her to stand up and back away. I put my hand over my wound and winced at the sharpness of the pain.

"You don't have to look, if you don't want to," I said, I was going to try and do what I had done to Marlo. Heal myself.

"Oh, no. You dragged me into biology where we did dissection after dissection. I think I'll be fine," she said quietly. I pulled my hand slowly away from the hole and with it came the bullet. I winced as the little metal bullet scraped against my raw skin. When it was fully out, I let it fall to the ground. Lux covered her mouth and turned away.

"On second thought, maybe not," she murmured, I smiled at how Lux, after having done so many dissections, even one on a human brain, was still squeamish with things like this.

I got to work filling the hole under my ribcage and fixing up my two previous wounds to my arm and shoulder. I sighed once they were done and examined them closely, perfect. I noticed that although the wounds had gone, the pain was still present. Looks like that was something I couldn't take away.

"I'm done," I told Lux, she took her hands away from her mouth and turned back around. Her eyes went wide as she searched for the wounds on my body; none were to be found.

"Wow, how did you do it?" she asked, examining me closely. I smiled shyly and told her on the way back to my room. Our rooms were all in the same area; Lux's room was just across the hall from mine. I watched her enter hers as we both said goodnight to each other.

I walked into my room, took off my shoes and sat on my bed. I sighed and stretched; things might actually turn out good this time. Nothing more to do except plan our revenge on Axel, my anger that I thought would go on for ages was surprisingly diluted. Probably from all the fun I had had. I was about to go to look for my flute when Marlo burst into my room.

"Hey, guess what," she begun quickly, I shrugged and she sat down beside me.

"Calum knows a guy that says he likes my kind of music, he says he's going to get in touch with him and hook me up with the company," she said excitedly, I smiled and nodded, not fully understanding what she was saying. She squealed and I flinched slightly from the sharp sound. Upon seeing this, Marlo laughed and I grinned. Calum was Marlo's new boyfriend and workmate, they both loved music almost as much as they loved each other. He was quite sweet from what information I gathered and what presents he gave her.

"I'm happy for you," was all I said which made her squeal again. She then smiled and rushed out of the room. I shook my head once she left; she deserved someone like that.

I slid off the bed and looked under the bed, and there it was. My flute. I held out my hand and it rolled right into it. I stood up and brushed it off, I smiled at it once it was cleaned to satisfaction. I walked out of my room and to the changing rooms after wandering around for about ten minutes. I removed all of my gear and put on a comfortable long skirt and an elbow length skirt. I brushed my hair and left the warehouse on yet another late night expedition.

I smiled as I walked towards the Empire State building, things might turn out all right. I just hoped I hadn't jinxed myself.


	23. Chapter 23

"Again!" Nara shouted, I sighed and aimed two punches for her head. She blocked them easily. I brought my elbow around to her jaw which she battered away before raising her knee up to catch me in the chest. I foiled that plan by pushing it back down and swinging my fist towards her head in another attempt. Nara, using my push to her advantage, ducked and kicked my feet out from under me.

My stumble backwards turned into a flip backwards, barely giving me enough time to see Nara rushing up to give me an upper cut. I narrowly sidestepped it, tripping her in the meantime. Instead of landing sprawled out on her stomach like she would have a month ago before she got her powers and didn't have any reason to train in hand to hand combat, she stuck out her hands, tucked her body under and did a forward roll on the ground to land on one knee. She swivelled around to face me with her hands ready.

I ran at her and tried to confuse her by jumping over her instead of dealing her a direct attack, but she read me like a book. She saw that I was going for the jump and as I came directly over her head she reached up and caught me by the ankles. I knew I was in trouble the moment I felt her hands lock in around them. With the added momentum from my leap, she practically threw me to the ground behind her.

I landed flat on my stomach and the breath was knocked from my lungs. I gasped for breath as Nara straddled my from my back which squeezed out whatever minuscule amount of oxygen I had gained. She held both of my hands behind my back as I again tried to breathe. When she saw I was having trouble she quickly climbed off me and came around where I could see her.

"Oh, my God! I'm so sorry!" She cried worriedly, I wriggled onto my side as I took in more air. I felt like a helpless little fish out of water.

"I thought you were meant to," I took a deep breath, "be hard on me today, not saying sorry," I wheezed, Nara laughed with relief. She straightened her back slightly.

"I'm sorry I'm not working you harder!" She shouted sternly, I nodded, took another deep breath and clambered to my feet.

It's been like this for about four or five days now, training in pairs or trios or even all together, with and without powers. Grace, Nara and I have been doing some cooking since Grace was getting tired of making food simply appear in front of her if she felt hungry. As she said, "I will only make food appear if it is of a great inconvenience to cook."

Marlo has had her career to worry about, two days ago she had received a call from the company that Calum had contacted. They liked their music but wanted more from them, so she begun busily create music as soon as she could. Once, I even found her in the studio surrounded by five mugs, paperwork scattered everywhere and her sitting slumped in a chair with dark circles around her eyes. She had stayed up the entire night. Of course I sent her straight to bed, not without a fight but she went anyway.

Whenever I haven't been training or cooking or watching Marlo just in case she sneaks off to the studio or running away into the night to prevent me from sleeping, I was hanging out with Lux. We would do all different kinds of things from hacking into kind of complex databases to programming robots that we had built to mixing a whole heap of chemicals to make some kind of a miniature bomb in our lab.

I remember one experiment – if you could even call it that – very clearly. We had a test tube with some potassium chlorate in the bottom of it sitting facing away from us in a clamp. Lux was eating some gummy bears and decided to stick one in. As soon as it touched the potassium chlorate, the bottom of it lit up with a sparking red light and a grey but thin smoke started bellowing from the test tube. It was kind of like fireworks had just gone off in the bottom of the test tube.

So that was basically our week, we were all repairing ourselves from what we had been through. We had a brief talk about our plot against Axel but we were all half asleep and gave up half way through. But judging by the talk on the news, the army was going to confront us about the damage we did publicly. Also, Axel must have told someone about what Marlo did to him because there was also mention of assault on an important person of the government.

I smiled at Nara as we walked out of the training area, she's been handling this week very well for someone in her shoes. We strolled down the corridors to the kitchen to get a drink. We nodded to Grace as we walked past each other and checked in on Lux to see if she was alright, she was tinkering with what seemed to be a long cylinder with a handle. We entered the kitchen and both grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Alright, when we go back, we're going to practise with the long swords, okay?" Nara more stated than asked. I nodded in acknowledgement and she smiled happily back at me. Nara loved the swords we had, they were her pride and joy, and she would polish and sharpen them and take care of them like none of us could. She also had the knowledge about them that no one else had.

We went back to the training area after our brief break. We picked up our swords from the weapons rack on the wall. We strapped our sheaths to our backs with our swords contained and headed over to the room off to the side of the main arena. Nara was the first to step into the pitch darkness of the room and close the door behind her. I waited for a few minutes before I went in after her.

This room was designed to help us adapt to combat in different environments all over the world, yesterday Marlo and I went in to the room with knives and daggers. The setting was an arctic wasteland.

I felt something brush my cheek as I walked through the dark. Suddenly, faint light filtered through the canopy of leaves above my head. It was a forest. And Nara probably had the jump on me since I let her go in first.

I trekked somewhat uphill before I decided to stop and get my bearings, after all it was better to be up high than down low. The bad thing about that is that you can be spotted easier. I crouched under the massive leaves of a fern and tried to make my breathing quieter so I could focus on the other sounds around me. The familiar sound of faint footsteps or the sword gliding out of the sheath ready for a strike was what I was prepared for.

What I was not prepared for was when a bird darted past my head in an escape from something behind it, and me. I twisted my head around just in time to see Nara leap out of the bushes and square onto my back. I cursed as I rolled over, dislodging her. I quickly scrambled to my feet and pulled out my sword, as did she. We circled each other, eyeing one another. While I was circling her, I was moving backwards towards the place where I had just come from, downhill.

Another few seconds of circling and she was in my position. I smiled at her and confusion clouded her eyes. I made a move like I was going to go for a jab to her stomach. Her reaction was exactly what I needed. She pulled away from me in response to my jab movement, her positioning being the key her foot slipped from the soil underneath her and she went tumbling down the hill. Thankfully there weren't many trees and rocks in the way so she rolled down relatively unscathed. I sprinted down after her, getting ready to make my checkmate when I heard Lux call me.

_Hey, I need you here in the kitchen, there are some guys here that have a proposition they want to make._

I ran right past Nara who saw me coming and shielded her face. I ran in the direction I remember the door being and eventually reached it. Not bothering to put my sword back in my sheath and put it back on the weapons stand, I slowed my pace as I made my way out of the training area.

With my sword in hand, I strolled down the memorised corridors to the kitchen. It has been much easier to go down the corridors after Marlo taught me the ones that were used the most. Sometimes I would go exploring to see what other rooms I could find in this maze. But most of the time I would get lost and have to call Lux or Marlo to help me out.

I turned the final corner to the kitchen when I heard the conversation through the open door. I heard sounds but couldn't make out words. I decided I would try and sneak up on these… two… three? No, two people in kitchen. As well as Lux. I peeped around the door frame into the kitchen, two men with their backs to the door were talking to Lux who was facing the door. Her eyes drifted up to me then back to her two visitors.

I stepped silently into the room and used Lux's voice to muffle my footsteps as I inched closer and closer towards the two. I smiled as gripped my sword with both of my hands and brought it up above my head and started to get my position just right. I was going to bring my sword just down in between the two. I was so concentrated on my footing that I didn't bother to listen to what either of the two men or Lux was saying.

I was barely even three feet from them when I raised the sword just a little bit higher above my head, it was going to be the perfect scare. I was just about to bring it down between them when the man on the left swung around and caught my arms just as they were coming down. He went to knee me in the stomach but I dodged it by shifting slightly to my right. I yanked my arms from his grasp and turned around coming for a spin attack on the intruder. He ducked as the other man and Lux got out of my way.

Losing my balance slightly I ended up with my side to the man's face. He went to kick my feet out from under me but I jumped over them. I swept my sword down my side to warn him not to get too close as I turned around to face him. I let one hand go of my sword and got into a fight stance that I had taught myself, stand slightly side on with my spare hand in front of my face ready to use my power and my sword in the other hand just behind my head with the blade level with my eye.

I watched as the person on the ground lifted his head and stared at me. My shoulders tensed as I realised who it was, my fingers started to curl in my spare hand. I wanted to attack, I really did.

It was the archer.


End file.
